Quote:
Originally Posted by Rupes
I love the comments from people who say that if you are driving safely and with enough distance that you can avoid flying debris from the road. You ever seen an unpredictable tire bounce around on a freeway? It's like Plinko. Plus, just because you can stop quickly, doesn't mean the guy behind you will. Even if I used my crystal ball and told you on a wide open stretch of road that a tire would be suddenly coming your way, I bet you'd still have a pretty good chance of hitting it.
Honestly the naivety on these forums sometimes is mind boggling.
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Naivety is believing that all accidents are the same. The circumstances have everything to do with the outcome. If someone hits you from behind, they're at fault, which can save you from reclassification. Your insurance company will sue the other guy's insurance, which recoups their costs and keeps you in the same class.
There are no absolutes, you can't always avoid an accident, but you can decrease your chances of having an accident. If you hit something that was lying stationary in the roadway, you didn't have sufficient time to react between seeing the object and hitting it. The next logical question is, "Why didn't I have time to react?" You can choose to get defensive about the potential answers to those questions, or you can be objective about it and simply say, "More distance between me and the car in front of me would have allowed me to avoid hitting the tire. Could I have created a scenario where I had more distance?"
The counter claim that you can't always accomplish that is valid. You can't, and I'm not claiming you can 100% of the time. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't try. You should also try to be as honest as you can with yourself about your driving habits, because avoiding accidents comes from forming good habits.
I understand that it's natural to feel defensive about these kinds of things. Everyone thinks they're a better than average driver. It's called "illusory superiority", and it's a pervasive cognitive bias. As I've aged, I've grown more reflective and self-aware. I'm more ready to look at my driving and identify the areas where I could do better. I find that more often, I actively create space between me and the guy in front of me. Sometimes I get frustrated and I follow too closely. The thing is, I'm aware of it, so I'm able to improve my habits. Telling yourself that you
can't do these things is an excuse to form bad habits. You can fight with me all you like about it, but your insurance company is still going to reclassify you in to a higher risk category, and increase your premium when you get in an accident. If your goal is to avoid that, then you have to do these things.