Today I’m going to talk about another significant factor that a court would take into account
when deciding liability in road traffic collisions that being your vehicle speed and
your stopping distance anyone who's ever learned to drive will remember the pain of learning or
stopping distances which includes your thinking distance your braking distance your overall
stopping distance and how this might be affected in wet conditions or icy conditions for the
purposes of this video I'm going to talk about a stretch of road with a 70 mile an hour speed limit
and the overall stopping distance that is required and how you should be driving safely to do this
of course I'm going to reference the highway code which you will remember from previous videos not
all of which create offences for each element that it talks about some of them do create offences but
others are just guidelines best advice and how you should drive your vehicle and things you should
and should not do the important thing to remember however is that if the case comes to court
the court will have regard to the highway code and whether or not you have breached any of these
rules when deciding liability whether you are to blame for the collision and whether you should be
liable for paying damages to other party this is particularly prevalent when talking about
speed limits the speed at which you are driving irrespective of the speed limit and the gap that
you left between you and the vehicle in front but first of all if you're new to me a barrister who
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the description below subtopic about 70 miles an hour as a speed limit the thinking distance for
this as set out in rule 126 of the highway code suggests that it is 21 m in addition to that the
braking distance is suggested to be 75 m with an overall stopping distance of 96 m in good normal
conditions for those still dealing all morning that's roughly 315 feet which you can think of as
being very roughly like the distance between two of those hundred yard mark is on the motorway or
dual carriageway yes I agree I also don't know why were you so many different units of measurement
in this country but alas that's the case and just put that into perspective the average car
is around about 15 feet long which compared with the overall stopping distance at 70 miles an hour
of hundred 15 feet that will be 21 car lengths in order to stop safely in normal conditions so back
to the highway code and rule 126 this reads as follows drive at a speed that will allow to stop
well within the distance you can see to be clear you should leave enough space between you and the
vehicle in front so that you can pull up safely if it suddenly slows down or stops in other words
something happens in the vehicle in front of you has to slam the brakes on Will you be able to stop
in time let's read on the safe rule is never to get closer than the overall stopping distance
which remember at 70 miles an hour is quite a long way secondly allow at least a two second gap
between you and the vehicle in front on roads carrying faster moving traffic and internals where
visibility is reduced the gap should be at least double on wet roads and increased further still
on icy roads and remember large vehicles and motorcycles need a greater distance.
If driving a large vehicle in a tunnel you should allow for second gap between you and the vehicle
in front so this is obviously very well known as the two second rule and as the saying goes
only a fall will break the two second all in this still appears as a press release by the highways
agency uncovered.K and it is something that I remember from learning to drive
and I have no doubt that you do to 126 also encourages you to pick a fixed point of reference
to note the distance between you and the vehicle in front in other words when it passes that fixed
point of reference you should not pass this point within two seconds hence the two second rule which
I was interested in looking at for the purposes of this video so you can see exactly what I mean
in real time let's take a look so with all that in mind I took my drone out to observe a portion of
the A 38 a portion of road with a 70 mile an hour speed limit now of course I didn't fly over the A
38 I am a sensible drone pilot vehicles regularly get up to the speed limit of 70 miles an hour on
this stretch of road with no obstructions and I was interested to see in a short time just
how many vehicles would break this to 2nd rule starting out with this example here you don't
really need to do the mathematics to realise this vehicle is travelling far too close to the vehicle
in front just to illustrate the two second rule in going to put a mark on the map where the front
vehicle passes and then where the rear vehicle is after two seconds so Hick and the two vehicles
I've stopped to hear the red line is the vehicle behind and the green line is the vehicle in front
the second red line at the bottom of the screen indicates where the rear vehicle reached after
two seconds of travel at 70 miles an hour bearing in mind it should not have passed
the green line which is the reference point of the front vehicle when we started the two second
timer and to look at this another way in terms of the overall stopping distance of 315 feet for 70
miles an hour 21 vehicles worth of distance would take this vehicle off the screen interestingly
the two second rule only took the vehicle seven car distances within just a few short minutes of
filming this section of road whilst some vehicles did maintain a safe distance from each other
I was quite dismayed at how many vehicles were in fact so close such as these it is no exaggeration
that every vehicle travelling as closely as the rear vehicle shown here could not possibly
stop if the vehicle in front had to perform an emergency stop for any reason whatsoever
very often I observed multiple vehicles in close proximity to each other each of the trailing
vehicles breaking the two second rule and if the front or any subsequent vehicle had to break
harshly there is no way that the rear vehicles would be able to stop in time without smashing
into the vehicles in front taking this clip as the example once again the white vehicle passes this
point here and the two rear vehicle should not have passed outline within two seconds of travel
at 70 miles an hour seven this very short clip you can see that some of these vehicles are travelling
dangerously close together and I did not cherry pick the worst parts of the video to show you
it was literally the first couple of minutes of footage which as it turned out was a very typical
30 seconds or so of footage for the remainder of the video which proved to me that even in
a random short clip of footage of this stretch of road there were several groups of vehicles
travelling in very close proximity to each other had there been any collision or any reason to stop
the vehicle in front each of the vehicles travelling behind would almost certainly have gone
into each other causing a multi-vehicle collision so the risk of this turning into a lecture it
really is not as a barrister creating this channel to help you understand law I feel it is necessary
to emphasise the risks placed upon each and every vehicle when travelling at such close proximity
you see as fast as we are frequently asked to advise on the quantum or the amount of damages
in personal injury claims that arise out of road traffic collisions
most people will hopefully never have to face such a claim but the reality is
there are a significant number of these collisions and a significant number of injuries most of which
could be avoided if vehicles did keep a safe distance from each other so as a barrister
to all of you guys watching please be mindful of the distance between you and the vehicle in front
it may well help you to save many lives so I thank you for watching this video please give
it a thumbs up if you think the message should be spread further and remember stay humble subscribe