“The car intervened and performed an emergency stop. The car behind didn’t ”
ANDREW FRANKEL
A friend of mine was involved in a car crash the other day. Nothing too serious and thankfully no one hurt beyond seatbelt bruising, but the point is she is adamant it was a modern safety system on the car she was driving that was at least partly to blame. I’m not going to name the car partly because I didn’t witness the accident but also because I suspect the alleged flaw in its accident prevention strategies is common in many other makes of car too.
She was leaving a motorway and on a short slip road approaching a roundabout at the bottom. The Audi in front braked quite heavily and just as she was about to do the same in response, the car intervened and performed a full-on emergency stop. What the car didn’t take into account was the elderly Vauxhall Zafira following her, just a little too close. Result: my friend’s car stopped fully five metres before the car in front, and was duly collected by the Zafira, with terminal consequences for the latter if not, mercifully, its occupants.