Zigner said:
Following too closely relates to actually hitting another vehicle. If debris is thrown off a vehicle, a person can't be faulted for following too closely to avoid the debris. You're confusing the situations.
As an example, say you're following 300 feet behind a scrap tire truck in the dead of night traveling at 25 miles per hour. A tire tumbles from the truck and bounces high in to the air - several times, until finally, on one of the bounces, it lands on your car. Would you say the driver was following too close???
No I'm not confusing anything.
The OP by their own admission was following aprox 12 feet behind a vehicle traveling 50 mph. Go ahead and do the math. In the driveer's guide from my DMV it states following a vehicle 2 seconds is appropriate. Tell me, how far do you go at 50 mph in 2 seconds?
You cite such an exteme example to try to make your point. If the OP was not folowing to closely, he may have been able to avoid this situaition. Again, in my area the ticket would read "failure to stop in an assured distance"
That means you need to be able to stop in the distance youcan see. If you fail to do this, you are either too close to the folks in front of you are youa are driving too fast to avoid the junk that is in the road ahead of you.
remeber the OP said 12 feet. that is less than the length of most cars. tailgaiting in my state.
Ok time's up. you would travel nearly 150 feet in 2 seconds at 50 mph. That is more than 12 times the distance he was following
