Tell me who's at fault?

All this tailgating conversation is funny. What I have learned trying not to drive like a crazed ass hat. If you leave a gap, someone will fill it. And thus piss me off and then I don’t leave a gap.

we now live in a world where you don’t matter, I am the only person that matters in our society.

I hope the pendulum swings back to when people cared about other human beings and realize it’s a better place when we show empathy and kindness towards each other.

my personal opinion, they were at fault for trying to pass on the right.

 

It seems like a lot of you have never driven on a highway near a big city. That’s not tailgating it’s normal driving in congested traffic. I dare any of you to come drive any highway within 40 miles of Boston.

 

We have a saying, when in mass, drive like a mass hole. My friends tell me I should be an ambulance driver when we go through Mass.

 

Agreed. Leaving a gap is impossible in traffic, someone will jump in to fill that gap. Then, you'll be riding their ass! It's practically a no-win situation. I can take the roasting & criticism. I know the people doing it are the ones that are perfect because they have never broken a single traffic law and never make a mistake while driving (like tail gaiting, speeding, improper lane change, etc..).

I know I made mistakes and could have done better. Now, I'll pay for those mistakes.

 

That was painful...

 

Try to better anticipate the future.
If you knew you don’t have the patience to deal with merging traffic, at first sign of multiple vehicles in the on ramp, you could change lanes to the left, to give yourself the freedom to speed up with much reduced interaction with those merging vehicles.

instead of proactively responding to merging traffic, you plowed forward, tailgating the vehicle in front of you, with zero consideration of how the driver in front may intrinsically react to the merging traffic (society desperately needs autonomous vehicles for this human reason alone)

it all comes down to situational awareness and assessment, which was non existent in the video

Camry driver also has poor situational awareness. Upon realizing it’s a merge zone, driver should have avoided merging right, realizing it’s an area with highly unpredictable driver behavior (aforementioned poor awareness). Should have deferred switching lanes until a segment of the freeway, where there is much lower chance of cars merging to the left.

the more your brain can process these ripple effects from a given condition, the better you will be at defensive driving.

 

it’s an exit to the other freeway. Cars in that lane don’t have to let people go through, they have priority, so the rav4 did not have priority when merging to the right lane.

the only things they could have done better was speed up and merge in front of the 2 cars (not obligated to speed up though). There it seems like they were waiting for the 2 cars to be ahead so they could merge behind them. One thing I would have liked to see is a turn signal before slowing down, even though they were not ready to turn yet, it would have given loco some indication to what they were doing. Too many people just activate their turn signal as they merge lane which is NOT the way to do it

 

I think OP said they were going to take the exit.

 

Then the decision to pass on the left, to then immediately merge back right to exit, was even more egregiously bad.. terrible driver on the road.

 

I totally agree. If you get the cross, I'm sure someone else will get the nails.

 

From the video, there's now way to prove the lane to the left was established by the camry. So one can only assume. I will say both OP and the Camry were trying to get the left lane at the same time and neither were fully in the lane.

And @semprenissemis correct. If the none of the entering lane were going to get over then they technically can say "kick rocks" to the rav4 wanting over there. It's up to the merging car to yield to the established lane they are wanting to get in. And unfortunately everyone in that lane behind them just had to deal and comply or move.

A lot of Texas highway entrances are exit lanes too and it sucks at traffic times

 

Not tailgating it's drafting! I'll take your dare.. been all over the northeast including Boston.. in a semi.. piece of cake! Every city I've ever been to is the same. When you're in a semi, cars and pickups are like a bunch of ants running all around after you step in the ant hill. Merry Merry!

 

To be clear, they are not called “entrance lanes”, they’re called “acceleration lanes”. They’re designed for us to increase from the speed limit of the access road to the speed limit of the freeway.

 

Glad it was just a minor thing. Move on boss and get a viper cut now. Problem solved.

 

Baton Rouge & New Orleans is also terrible to drive in. You don’t even have to have a car length in front of you and some drivers will force themselves into your lane, causing you to brake hard and cause issues behind for other drivers. So leaving extra distance works against you regardless.
My decision still stands on fault.

 

Try being a Mainer driving down here. By the time I get used to it, it will be time to back north.

 

We can take the braking distance out of the equation. I agree it's a little less relevant in this case and I'm not saying we should leave 183ft+ of space, that's way too much. But following 10 ft to the car in front of you at highway speeds, IMO is not safe in any circumstances, or any lanes, it doesn't matter if you drive a sports car or a truck. You might be able to brake in time with 10ft forward seperation, but your rate of deceleration might surprise other drivers behind you. This is how pileups happen.

 

Update:

Geico just called me (the other guy's insurance company). They said based off the video they will pay for 50% of the damage to my vehicle. I think that means they are assuming fault?

 

Sounds reasonable. Thanks for the update. I was interested to see how it would go.

 

I would just focus on vetting the shop you want to do your repair work now.

 

I told the lady from Geico that I am going to wait until I hear back from my insurance company. They immediately accepted fault and agreed to pay for 50%.

 

I see some "tailgating" there ... lucky no one was hurt ... could have caused a chain reaction wreck.

That road was a piece of cake to drive on.

Married to an Asian lady ... Try driving in Bangkok .... or Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) with almost no traffic lights.

I have lived in both cities (still have a home in HCMC) and a car or truck there is almost impossible to drive for an American with average driving skills.

 

This is good news to my eyes not giving you 100% fault. Hope your vehicle gets fixed properly at a good shop and just paying the deductible and 2 insurance companies take the bill.

I highlighted "fixed properly at a good shop" because I had really bad experience when my 4Runner was fixed with the accident happen when it was with dealership service. Pathetic paint job any more. So hope you find a good shop to get it fixed.

 

That's my biggest concern: Color matching the paint! It's always a huge issue if the vehicle is a few years old and/or has seen a lot of sun. Other parts might have faded faster.

Hey, maybe I'll go the full steel bumper route with a viper cut! No need to paint anything. Rip off the old bumper and install the Steelie!

 

I'm no insurance expert but doesnt that mean you where 50% at fault. And your insurance company pay 50% of their repairs as well

 

No, that isn't what it means. It means they pay for 100% of the other guy and for 50% of my repairs. They accepted fault/liability, but only partial. I'm going to wait until Progressive calls me. Maybe they'll push back and make them accept full liability?

 

Good luck.
Sadly for me it wasn't an option. The body shop didn't want to deal with taking money from insurance for the OEM part and take my money out of pocket for a full bumper.

Insurance seem to pay (atleast what I think.) dirt cheap prices to get a used plastic bumper. I think the whole effort is to fix cheap as possible to make it look nice to a average customer. But didn't work to my eyes. I documented every flaw and reported to Toyoto corporation and dealership got the car back and gave me a new 4Runner.

 

From watching the video to me it appears a 50/50 at fault accident. You might have to pay your deductible and be on your way.

 

Yes, depending on the state. The amount they pay is based on the percentage of fault, depending on the state you live in (comparative negligence)

 

I live in Austin. One of the worst traffic ridden cities in America.

That was tailgating. And I’m not holier than thou, I do the shit all the time, and guess what? I slam the shit out of my brakes all the time because driving in this shitshow traffic results in frequent somewhat close calls. Not to mention, we go from 70mph to a dead stop frequently.

it was obvious this person was a little bit frustrated with driver ahead of them and wanted to go around them. The other driver was probably just as at fault.

when I’m having a good day and not annoyed by people, I slow down and just drive. I’m not getting anywhere faster by changing lanes, I don’t care if someone gets in front of me, I don’t need to maintain a 1ft gap.
Now when I’m having a bad day, I drive like an asshole for sure and I’d be right here admitting it.