Anyone ever get a Following Too Close ticket?

[dubc80]

Anyone ever gotten a ticket for Following Too Closely after an accident?

I was unfortunately in an accident a few weeks ago. There was a 3-car collision in front of me. The guy immediately in front of me stopped suddenly (avoiding the prior crash) and swerved partially into the open lane to our left.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to stop in time, or swerve far enough out of the way, so I rear ended him on the back left corner. He did not crash into the 3 cars in front and thankfully no one was hurt at all.

Because of the number of vehicles involved, cops showed up on scene to do all the paperwork and I got a ticket for following too closely. $233!

The cop was pretty sheepish when she gave it to me and actually recommended me to go fight it in court. It almost seemed like it was routine procedure or something.

I thought it was rather unfair considering the driving conditions at the time.

Anyone ever had this happen, and have success challenging it?

[GoinAllTheWay]

Originally Posted by dubc80

I thought it was rather unfair considering the driving conditions at the time.

Anyone ever had this happen, and have success challenging it?

Regardless of the conditions, if the car in front of you brakes suddenly and you haven't left yourself enough room to stop in time, that's 100% on you.

Every day I see people following waaaaaaay too close to the car in front of them.

You can even be charged with an accident if you are stopped at a light and the guy behind you rear ends you and you then rear end the guy in front of you. There are some exceptions of course but this is a common one.

[pseudoreality]

No, but I once was pulled over for having my safety chain too low. He also said something about being suspicious of out of Province plates Rubbermaid tubs in the trailer. This was close to the NWT/Alberta border and lots of people do shopping runs. I don't know what the heck he thought we might be smuggling. The cop must have been bored. After running my plates and my ID he let me go without making any adjustments to my trailer.

[ken0042]

I had one very similar to yours. When I started pleading my case to the officer, one of the people who witnessed the accident came forward and identified himself as being an off duty office. He asked if I was watching out for the kids who had been playing on the snowbank beside the road; and I had. He told me that if it was any consolation he might have done the same thing, but at the end of the day I was still responsible for falling further back.

[llwhiteoutll]

Originally Posted by dubc80

Anyone ever gotten a ticket for Following Too Closely after an accident?

I was unfortunately in an accident a few weeks ago. There was a 3-car collision in front of me. The guy immediately in front of me stopped suddenly (avoiding the prior crash) and swerved partially into the open lane to our left.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to stop in time, or swerve far enough out of the way, so I rear ended him on the back left corner. He did not crash into the 3 cars in front and thankfully no one was hurt at all.

Because of the number of vehicles involved, cops showed up on scene to do all the paperwork and I got a ticket for following too closely. $233!

The cop was pretty sheepish when she gave it to me and actually recommended me to go fight it in court. It almost seemed like it was routine procedure or something.

I thought it was rather unfair considering the driving conditions at the time.

Anyone ever had this happen, and have success challenging it?

If you knew the driving conditions at the time were poor, why didn’t you adjust the distance that you were following at?

[Frequitude]

Sorry, this is going to sound righteous, but if you couldn't stop on time you were following too closely and deserve the ticket. And that's coming from someone who did exactly what you did about 10 years ago and even tried to rationalize it in the same way.

Tailgaiting or following too closely is my biggest gear grinder on the roads. Its not like it makes the cars ahead all speed up. It doesn't freakin get you there any faster. It just increases your risk of an accident.

[Weitz]

What is the question here? You didn't leave enough space and rear ended someone. So you got a following too close ticket.

[dobbles]

Originally Posted by GoinAllTheWay

Regardless of the conditions, if the car in front of you brakes suddenly and you haven't left yourself enough room to stop in time, that's 100% on you.

Every day I see people following waaaaaaay too close to the car in front of them.

You can even be charged with an accident if you are stopped at a light and the guy behind you rear ends you and you then rear end the guy in front of you. There are some exceptions of course but this is a common one.

I had a co-worker that had previously worked in the insurance claims industry and she said that if you are ever in a multi-car incident like that, to tell them that you only felt 1 collision and not 2 separate ones. I think the rationale was that if the collision was severe enough to pile all the cars together it made the initial driver liable, but that if you felt 2 separate incidents that it meant you were at fault for driving too close.

For some reason that tidbit always stuck with me and when reading this it brought back the memory. I have no idea of the validity though. Obviously different companies and countries have all their different rules for both legal and insurance faults.

[chummer]

Another good reason to get a dash cam.

[Jason14h]

Another good reason to get a dash cam.

To prove you were driving to closely?

[ernie]

No but I did get pulled over for it once....

Middle of Kansas going up a hill. As we come to crest the hill truck in front of me sees a Cop coming up the other side of the hill and slams on his brakes (still to this day not sure why as we weren't actually speeding). I respond by of course putting my brakes on but the distance between us closes as expected. Cop passes and sees at that moment I'm close to the truck (and honestly still not really close), spins around and lights me up.

He asks if I know why I've been pulled over. I say "no. I wasn't speeding or anything".

"You were following too close" looks in back seat and sees my kids "you need to drive safe to keep them safe. If that truck had slammed on his brakes you would have hit him and had a serious accident."

Daughter being 9 and innocent says "Daddy if you were too close how did you slow down in time when the truck slowed down all of a sudden?"

Officer "what was that sweetheart?" Daughter clams up a little scared though the officer wasn't being mean.

I said "I think the guy in front of me saw you coming up the hill and slammed on his brakes for some reason. I slammed on mine which closed the gap."

Officer "Oh. My apologies."

The was the one time my daughter speaking out of turn helped.

Anyways...ya like the others have said you need to leave space to stop in case something happens in front of you.

[GoinAllTheWay]

Originally Posted by chummer

Another good reason to get a dash cam.

No, but get a dashcam anyways. Seriously, this is a PSA to all. Get a dash cam, put it in your car. Get it done. The number of clients I have that would have been greatly aided by having dashcam footage is unreal. I'm of the opinion they should become standard equipment.

All it takes is getting into an accident with on DB that wants to lie through their teeth in the absence of an independent 3rd party that can can say what they saw to screw you over and get you 50% charged with an accident you had no way of avoiding. Quite possibly one of the best investments you can make and can be a bullet proof ally during a claim.

[Slava]

Well I realise I'm about to get flamed here, but if it was me, I'd go in and make my case. You had enough room to try to take evasive action, so it's not like you were riding g the guys bumper (at that point!). I just figure it's worth a shot.

[Sliver]

Dash cams piss me off. I can't believe how many people are willing to basically go around tattling on their fellow Calgarians for driving infractions. Like who doesn't speed once in a while or run the odd yellow light? Or maybe shoot the gap, or have to ride somebody's ass in the left lane while flashing your brights to get them to move the fata over? Why would I want to be recording all of that and it bothers me some dummy in their Honda Civic could be recording me doing that, then ratting me out to the cops.

[calf]

Originally Posted by Slava

Well I realise I'm about to get flamed here, but if it was me, I'd go in and make my case. You had enough room to try to take evasive action, so it's not like you were riding g the guys bumper (at that point!). I just figure it's worth a shot.

Yeah, if you have a good case, why not try and get the ticket overturned, or at worst, reduced a little? You still learn your lesson, but pay less money.

Fight it!

[troutman]

German tailgating fines:

https://www.howtogermany.com/pages/t...tml#tailgating

(Example: At a speed of 100 km/h, the minimum distance to the vehicle in front should be 25 meters - 5/10 of half the speedometer)

[OBCT]

I got a "following too closely" ticket randomly while driving on Highway 3 about three years back. There was no accident or close call or anything like that.

I was shocked when the policeman pulled me over, and had no idea what it was for. I was certainly not speeding, and I had never heard of this type of ticket being written under "normal" driving circumstances (e.g. no incident).

However, the officer evidently thought my offense was at least somewhat egregious; when he asked me why he pulled me over, I just looked at him dumbfounded and muttered, "I'm not sure, sir." He did not appreciate that response, and must have assumed I was playing dumb. He proceeded to ask me if I was tired or distracted, and I said, "I was not," since I wasn't. He threatened to write me an additional "distracted driving" ticket before handing me the first ticket and walking away.

At first I was quite upset about the ticket, since I hadn't (and still haven't) found anyone else who has even heard of someone getting written up for "following too closely" without an collision or other incident as a catalyst. That and I don't remember following closely to begin with - hence my shock at the ticket.

However, in the past year or so I've realized that tailgating is not only annoying, but very dangerous, and I've softened my stance. By the letter of the law, I was almost certainly "following too closely", and just because other people may not be getting as many of these tickets as they should is no reason for me not to drive safely. So, I've taken it as a bit of a lesson. And this thread is another good reminder, so thanks!

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by Sliver

Dash cams piss me off. I can't believe how many people are willing to basically go around tattling on their fellow Calgarians for driving infractions. Like who doesn't speed once in a while or run the odd yellow light? Or maybe shoot the gap, or have to ride somebody's ass in the left lane while flashing your brights to get them to move the fata over? Why would I want to be recording all of that and it bothers me some dummy in their Honda Civic could be recording me doing that, then ratting me out to the cops.

I don't know a single person who got a dash cam for what you just described. It's so you don't get charged/blamed/whatever for something that you rightfully shouldn't be. Its a self defense measure.

[Canehdianman]

Originally Posted by Sliver

Dash cams piss me off. I can't believe how many people are willing to basically go around tattling on their fellow Calgarians for driving infractions. Like who doesn't speed once in a while or run the odd yellow light? Or maybe shoot the gap, or have to ride somebody's ass in the left lane while flashing your brights to get them to move the fata over? Why would I want to be recording all of that and it bothers me some dummy in their Honda Civic could be recording me doing that, then ratting me out to the cops.

I couldn't agree more. Being responsible for your actions sucks.

[WhiteTiger]

Originally Posted by Sliver

Dash cams piss me off. I can't believe how many people are willing to basically go around tattling on their fellow Calgarians for driving infractions. Like who doesn't speed once in a while or run the odd yellow light? Or maybe shoot the gap, or have to ride somebody's ass in the left lane while flashing your brights to get them to move the fata over? Why would I want to be recording all of that and it bothers me some dummy in their Honda Civic could be recording me doing that, then ratting me out to the cops.

In my experience, this almost never happens.

Oh, we get plenty of calls from folks tattling on other folks driving habits, but as soon as I ask the all important question "Do you want to see police about this to pursue it further, or did you just want us to know?" I have only ever once, in 5 years, had someone say they wanted to see CPS to pursue it further.

So yeah, Calgarians like to whine to the cops about driving, but when it comes down to DOING something about it...it's a no-go.