Nearly caused an accident

Jamie-b

I feel sick. I came up to traffic lights and they turned orange. I braked too fast, i should have kept going and the car behind me screeched to a halt. Smoke off his wheels and everything. He nearly hit me. I feel awful I am still shaking. Hate driving

Robus

Jamie-b wrote: »

I feel sick. I came up to traffic lights and they turned orange. I braked too fast, i should have kept going and the car behind me screeched to a halt. Smoke off his wheels and everything. He nearly hit me. I feel awful I am still shaking. Hate driving

He/She should have left enough room to stop !:)

Ash.J.Williams

Jamie-b wrote: »

I feel sick. I came up to traffic lights and they turned orange. I braked too fast, i should have kept going and the car behind me screeched to a halt. Smoke off his wheels and everything. He nearly hit me. I feel awful I am still shaking. Hate driving

His fault not yours. If they were orange for you they would be red for him or am i wrong?
Plus he's behind you and should the appropiate breaking distance behind, he probably put the foot down when he saw the orange light.

messrs

as other poster said, the car behind you should be far enough behind you to be able to stop
know what its like tho - my first time driving around dub on my own took wrong turn and suddenly had no idea where i ws and panicked so much, im sure i almost caused a (few) accidents that day 2!!!
dont let it put you of tho - i did, and now i no longer drive and regert giving up so much - still feel 2 nervous/scared to go back ( 4 years later)

cyrusdvirus

Not your fault...down to him to leave enough space to stop, and once you have L plates up he should be giving you a wider berth.

Lillylilly

gatecrash wrote: »

once you have L plates up he should be giving you a wider berth.

As a learner myself, I find people are less patient and try and bully you on the road. As a result of this, I've almost caused a few accidents too. Don't worry OP.. As a friend of mine once said "we weren't all born driving!". Everyone has to learn at some point, most of the pr!cks on the road seem to forget that!!!

Jamie-b

Thanks for the replies. Yes he should have been stopping anyway since I should have been the last person to make it through. But i tend to do this- see an orange and panic and brake. My mam keeps telling me I'll learn when to judge it but it's the worst thing. I barely made it - my wheel was a foot over the line. I reckon he was intending to come through with me- I see this in Dublin a lot, two or three cars speed through the red sometimes. But still it was partially my fault and I feel crap

Edit: In fairness he did leave enough space to stop as he didnt hit me. Fair play. But I still feel really bad :-(

php-fox

Jamie-b, just fyi, there is nothing worse than being indecisive on the road.
Even though we as drivers are not resposible for the people behind us in terms of law, we still have to keep them in mind. If you see amber lights coming on break gently (even if you roll over the line, it should be fine) or keep going.
If you decide to keep going, the person behind you sees that and might decide to do the same. And then you change your mind. This is the dangerous part for both, you and the guy behind you.

So, think fast, and don't change your opinion, unless in direct danger.

Jamie-b

there is nothing worse than being indecisive on the road.

I wasnt indecisive as such I braked the minute the amber came and stopped. However in reterospect I probablyshouldn't have and gone straight through

cosmic

Amber means stop, unless it is unsafe to do so. In this instance it was unsafe to stop, so you're ok to keep going, provided you've quickly checked around you that it's safe to proceed.

Thumpette

I used to be terrible for this when i was learning to drive. Even if I spotted it going amber in my peripheral vision as I passed it I would slam on the brakes!

You will learn to judge it. Other car should have been preparing to stop, no crash happened, no harm done.

Dont let it knock your confidence!

ectoraige

Jamie-b wrote: »

I wasnt indecisive as such I braked the minute the amber came and stopped. However in reterospect I probablyshouldn't have and gone straight through

When you are learning, the best thing to do as soon as you see an orange light is to drop a gear and use the brakes to slow up a little. Only once you have done this should you decide to stop or keep going. If you have space, then brake again and come to a gentle stop. If, however, you are nearly at the line, then you should continue through it.

It is better to slow down, and then go through an orange, than to jam on the brakes at the last moment.

What likely happened was the driver behind you expected you to just continue on through the lights, and probably sped up himself to try to make it too. By braking and dropping a gear as soon as you see orange, anybody behind you will expect you to be stopping and will start slowing themselves.

One of the challenges when you are learning is to drive "outside" the car - most of your attention is focused on the controls of the car itself and maybe the immediate few feet in front of you. Once you are a competent driver your focus changes to much further away from you, and you don't give a second thought to what is going on in the car itself. Until you can do this, it is very hard to judge "if it is safe to do so" - you have to have awareness of who is behind you, what speed they are travelling at, how long it will take you to clear the intersection, and the effect of the road conditions themselves. All of this takes time, and is why drivers are meant to give extra space to L-drivers.

At the end of the day, it was the other driver's fault that he had to brake too harshly - he didn't observe and anticipate the potential hazard - you, the L-driver ahead of him. The driver accompanying you can only give so much advice, you're out there to learn, not to be perfect.

So get it into your head - orange light = slow down, THEN decide.

gooch2k9

Your supposed to ease up on approach to lights anyway, in the case that they do change. Even still no matter how sharp you braked the following car did not give sufficient clearance if he had to smoke the wheels to stop.

Just put it down to experience and drive away. Most people hate learning to drive, I know I did, but its a great liberation when you get the pink slip.