Cleanup of 5th wheel accident in California

I have driven California 86 in this area several times. I will agree the yellow light does not give enough time to make a safe stop and prevent the vehicle behind you from a rear end collision.

Here is something to ponder.

A vehicle going 50 mph will cover about 220 ft in 3 seconds.

An average car will require 235 feet to stop from 50 mph.

I suspect trucks and RV's will require more distance.

How long does it take to stop a car.

This stretch of 4 lane highway has a very large truck and RV traffic load.

And I believe the speed limit for this stretch of highway is 55 for anything pulling a trailer.

Cummins12V98 wrote:
Thanks for posting this. Newbies PLEASE watch this video.

I too ask why, You often post on your speed, hopefully newbies are not reading that .

He ran red even if he saw yellow. Vehicle at a dead stop approaching would not have hit or at least hard. Truck lift did not help. Those tires did not help even if rated for the load. Way over payload for a 3/4 ton, would be on my F350 as well. Why would anyone attempt to run yellow with 40' behind them?
New truck and 5er so must be a newbie ~~ or else if his brain were gasoline there would not be enough to power a piss ant's go cart around a Cheerio.
Wondering if he received a citation or a number of them.

mich800 wrote:
As far as the RV, they very well may have been trying to decide do I go and make the yellow or stop immediately.

x2.

It's different for each driver. Do I slow down a bit before the light, do I keep up my speed or accelerate, do I know the light has just turned green, is there cross-traffic waiting...? Traffic lights, especially on high speed roads, is a guessing game, and a dangerous one.

If this driver was actually doing 40mph, he was slowing down in anticipation, and apparently got caught at exactly the wrong time.

GWolfe wrote:

Travlingman wrote:

GordonThree wrote:
Any details on what happened here?

https://youtu.be/DOnxT1S4Irw

Driver comments:

"Update to incident: I was traveling 40 mph and the light went to yellow switched in less than 2 seconds. I did run the light, it was my fault 100% however after talking to CHP he says these lights are not timed correctly. I could not stop in time, I laid on my horn for what seemed forever (no eye contact from driver) He rear ended the back of my bed. Very scary my son (8) and daughter (5) and wife are all okay. I’m a good driver however today was not my day. It could of been a lot worse. Thank you for all the kind words. See you all soon!"?

Something doesn't seem right here. 40 MPH isn't so fast that he couldn't get stopped in time. How far back would he have to be to see the "two second yellow" and decide he couldn't stop and to run it, and the other guy that hit him with enough force to flip his truck wasn't just starting off from a complete stop.

I'm probably way off but you know how us keyboard detectives are.

Drivers time lights all the time. Just because the light was red on one direction does not mean the traffic was stopped upon turning green. As far as the RV, they very well may have been trying to decide do I go and make the yellow or stop immediately. We have all done it and in that time they could have lost precious stopping distance. I am not saying this is what happened but there are many plausible explanations for what happened at least from my armchair position.

Don't know the intersection personally but from all the traffic, it would seem to me any vehicles on the cross street would be stopped waiting for the light to change. Even with a very short all-red, how did the vehicle that did the t-bone build enough inertia from a stop?

Running a red where cross traffic is already flowing fits better.

Anyone in California want to FOIA the CHP for the crash report and diagram?

Travlingman wrote:

GordonThree wrote:
Any details on what happened here?

https://youtu.be/DOnxT1S4Irw

Driver comments:

"Update to incident: I was traveling 40 mph and the light went to yellow switched in less than 2 seconds. I did run the light, it was my fault 100% however after talking to CHP he says these lights are not timed correctly. I could not stop in time, I laid on my horn for what seemed forever (no eye contact from driver) He rear ended the back of my bed. Very scary my son (8) and daughter (5) and wife are all okay. I’m a good driver however today was not my day. It could of been a lot worse. Thank you for all the kind words. See you all soon!"?

Something doesn't seem right here. 40 MPH isn't so fast that he couldn't get stopped in time. How far back would he have to be to see the "two second yellow" and decide he couldn't stop and to run it, and the other guy that hit him with enough force to flip his truck wasn't just starting off from a complete stop.

I'm probably way off but you know how us keyboard detectives are.

GordonThree wrote:
The change warning intersections around here cause folks to speed up, not slow down.

Maybe some, but not me, and not truckers. You should see the skid marks at these intersections.

The change warning intersections around here cause folks to speed up, not slow down.

Everyone is very important and time spent stopped at a light is intolerable.

RinconVTR wrote:
The only interesting post has been about the 5th wheel hitch and how it reacted to this crash! Otherwise...all garbage posts are here!!!

Driver said he couldn't stop "in time", the root cause of the crash. My post is about warning drivers of a light change. Tell me why that's garbage.