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A comment on Passenger with “no idea how to fly” lands plane after pilot incapacitated. Parent comment

Re:Passenger with “no idea how to fly” lands plane after pil... by mbreese on Wednesday May 11, 2022 @02:15PM (#31343749)
In the event of a pileup, it doesn’t really matter how much distance you’ve left. If you end up hitting the car in front of you, you get cited for failure to maintain distance. Because, if you had left enough distance, you wouldn’t have hit the car in front of you. It doesn’t matter if you left 50, 75, or 100m. If you hit the car in front, you didn’t leave enough space. And the risk of someone else swerving into that gap doesn’t mean you’re not at fault, it just means you’re both wrong now.
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Re:Passenger with “no idea how to fly” lands plane after pil... by InitialLastName on Wednesday May 11, 2022 @03:07PM (#31344365)
> In the event of a pileup, it doesn’t really matter how much distance you’ve left.

For legal liability, that might be true. In reality, if you've left yourself a safe amount of distance, you have more opportunity to react to events in front of you in such a way that you minimize damage and loss of life (thus mattering).

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Re:Passenger with “no idea how to fly” lands plane after pil... by mbreese on Wednesday May 11, 2022 @06:32PM (#31346796)
If you’ve left enough room, you’re not part of the pile up. Kind of by definition…
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Re:Passenger with “no idea how to fly” lands plane after pil... by InitialLastName on Thursday May 12, 2022 @12:25PM (#31356353)
Even if you still crash, the extra second of braking time can take off ~10-15 mph [0], which at 60 mph V(t=0) is ~40% of the energy that would otherwise dissipate into your car and the cars you hit.

[0] https://copradar.com/chapts/references/acceleration.html

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Re:Passenger with “no idea how to fly” lands plane after pil... by ClumsyPilot on Wednesday May 11, 2022 @03:38PM (#31344736)
> And the risk of someone else swerving into that gap doesn’t mean you’re not at fault, it just means you’re both wrong now.

Sounds a lot like 'climate change is your fault', because there is nothong I can personally do, you are just shifting the blame

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