How to Avoid Rear-End Accidents

There’s really nothing more frustrating that getting rear-ended.  Rear-end Accidents can range from simple aggravation to serious injury – or worse.

You’ve been driving along, doing all the right Driverthink type of stuff, and you pull to a stop.  Suddenly there’s the sickening sound of crunching car parts and it’s happening at your rear bumper.

Now you’re faced with anything from the loss of your banged up buggy while it’s in the body shop, to a day or more in the hospital recovering from the injury.  It can really wreak havoc with a busy schedule, not to mention your car or your body parts.

It might seem like there’s nothing we can do to avoid this type of accident.  If a car plows into us while we’re stopped in traffic with no avenue of escape, there probably isn’t.  But there are things we can do to try to avoid the predicament.  Let’s Driverthink about some of them.

There are fundamentally two types of Rear-end bang ups. 

• The “Dead Stop” Rear-end accident occurs when you’re at a (you guessed this one right?) Dead Stop.  Someone simply plows into you for any number of usually inexcusable reasons.

• The second is the “Quick Stop” bang up.  You suddenly have to make a quick stop and the driver behind you either doesn’t see the problem quickly enough, or doesn’t have quite the reaction time to stop without whacking you.

Avoiding either of these accidents is all about anticipation.  We need to know what’s around us and anticipate the possible risks before they actually rearrange the rear design of our buggy.

In attempting to avoid either of these accidents, there are three basic considerations.

• First, make sure the brake lights are working.  An easy way to check more often, without requiring a helper, is to back up or steer away from a reflective store window or door and check your rear view mirror while braking.

• Speaking of the rear-views, make sure they’re adjusted properly and use them.  We need to know who’s behind us – and more importantly, how they’re behaving.

• Avoid the “Stop on my Tail-gater”.  This is the guy who always stops two inches from your rear bumper.  Eventually he’ll miscalculate and even if he doesn’t, the fact that he stopped so close, will make you an instant casualty if he gets Rear-ended.  Lose him.


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Avoiding the “Dead Stop” bang up is all about those rear-views.  You’ve got to know who’s behind you and how she’s driving.  If the driver’s obvious lack of skill or caution is making you leery, get out of her way before she lands in your back seat.  Let her get around you and become someone else’s problem.   You might also:

• Leave a little room in front of you and “watch that rearview”.  If the buggy behind you is slowing but you see he’s just not going to make it, you may be able to inch forward and give him extra room.

• Try to leave yourself an opening.  Even if it’s cutting across another stopped car or jumping up onto a center median it beats getting whacked.

The “Quick Stop” Rear-ender is trickier.

• If you’re stopped at a merge, when you go, Go!  Make sure you’re clear before you pull out.  If you suddenly start up and then see something to make you quickly stop again, it’s likely the car behind you will end up on you’re bumper.

• Try not to Panic Stop.  Often you’ll see something you immediately need to avoid and lock your brakes instantly – especially if you happen to be of the “really quick reactions” persuasion.  You may not really have to stop that quickly, so again, glance in that rearview and try to stop quickly enough, but not so quickly that your back bumper buddy can’t avoid ugly impact.

Avoiding Rear-ending someone else, is much more a matter of common sense – which is why many States make it a “presumption of guilt”.

• Pay attention.  Not good to be text-messaging, when you’re coming to a stop.

• Leave a safe distance between yourself and the car in front of you.

• Forward Look past the car in front of you – if you can.  What is she seeing that you might want to know about?

• Avoid the “Insurance Fraud”.  This is the guy who wants you to Rear-end him, so he can collect for ten years of neck brace.  If you’re tailgating him, you’re a perfect target for his fraud.

The best way to avoid being Rear-ended is to know everything that’s going on around you.  In front of you, beside you – and most importantly, behind you.  If you identify a problem, get out from in front of it – before it ends up in your back seat!

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Posted by Frank Miller at 6/13/2008 3:46 PM
Categories: Driving Experience

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