From Drive to Neutral at lights?

[Munroast]

If you were about to get rear ended (ooh err missus) . What would be best, have brakes fully on, or in neutral with no brakes ? Lets say at traffic lights with a similar sized car 10' in front. I'm thinking the latter, being shunted into the car in front spreads the damage. Whiplash type shock may be more but not sure on this.

best solution would be to accelerate into the car in front just before impact at rear

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

If you were about to get rear ended (ooh err missus) . What would be best, have brakes fully on, or in neutral with no brakes ? Lets say at traffic lights with a similar sized car 10' in front. I'm thinking the latter, being shunted into the car in front spreads the damage. Whiplash type shock may be more but not sure on this.

Whiplash will be much less, the slower you are accelerated forward - footbrake on will help with that. In neutral also helps, in that your foot cannot slip of the clutch during the impact. If you are forced into the vehicle in front, you suffer a double impact.

Footbrake off, eases the impact for the driver/car which rear ends you.

Driving a Transit pickup in a row of cars, the leader of the pack suddenly put his right indicator on and stopped in the middle of the road, bringing the rest of the cars abruptly to a stop, including me. A new Citroen, just out of the showroom came tearing round the bend from behind, couldn't stop in time and ended up under the tail of the Transit, lifting the rear wheels of the road and shunting me into the GPO van in front of me - that despite my footbrake being on. There was no damage to the Transit, a dent in the bumper of the GPO, the Citroen was a right off.

 

[RandomGrinch]

There are some interesting videos on YouTube showing autonomous Tesla's avoiding rear end collisions.
The tech has a definite benefit over us. It can choose to use pretty instant acceleration to get out of trouble, where us flesh'n'bones instinct is to hit the breaks!

 

[mattylad]

Y'all got it sooo wrong.

I often see people who have it figured out right, no need to put the car in neutral or apply the handbrake for them - they just don't stop at traffic lights

 

[Munroast]

here's me taking a wagon up the jacksie

inc bad tempered outburst at end

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

here's me taking a wagon up the jacksie

inc bad tempered outburst at end

Clearly the driver behind you at fault but why did you slow down so much?

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Clearly the driver behind you at fault but why did you slow down so much?

Because of the 'Police Slow' signs and the police with blues on - was there ice on the road?

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Because of the 'Police Slow' signs and the police with blues on - was there ice on the road?

But you can see the police car wasn't slowing to a stop. Driver error on both parts.

 

[JohnD]

….. was there ice on the road?

the pedestrian crossing the road to the crashed car certainly appears to be slithering around on ice, so there must be a risk that other vehicles on the same route would also spin off the road unless they took preventative measures.

there are some places where multiple vehicles, encountering the same conditions, do the same thing.

One wonders if the vehicle behind skidded on the icy road, or was, at least, unable to stop within the distance they could see to be clear. Munroast did not jam his brakes on and slam to an emergency stop.

 

[RandomGrinch]

One wonders if the vehicle behind skidded on the icy road, or was, at least, unable to stop within the distance they could see to be clear.

I totally agree, without knowing more details, the road seems treacherous. It seems as if the vehicle behind slid into the back and the van didn't stop immediately as it was also sliding at this point.
Munroast was driving at an appropriate speed for the road conditions.

 

[Munroast]

Clearly the driver behind you at fault but why did you slow down so much?

You make a very valid point, however the video doesnt make it very clear but the policeman in the van was waving his arm up and down and I thought he was wanting me to stop.

I was very well aware of the wagon behind, he seemed to be driving very slowly and cautiously and was also stopping, I didn't think there was any chance of him crashing into me. For whatever reason he slid about 20 yards into me doing about 5mph. (I had just fitted winter tyres the day before, may be that is why I could slow without any sign of slipping?) It is amazing how much damage 44t does at walking speed. Wrote the van off.

The lorry driver turned out to be a really nice helpful bloke, although it didn't start off too good, I wasn't happy and I thought he kept saying "is there something wrong with your head" then he said there was a lot of blood coming out of it, at which point I could feel something running down my back - he phoned the ambulance.

There was another 3 cars crashed further down the road, one in the hedge and two in the field, then as we waited another two cars crashed coming the other way, the copper was desperately trying to close the road - it was seriously icy,

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I would suspect the driver behind hadn't realised he was slowing down, perhaps he didn't brake or show brake lights and by the time he did realise it was simply a panic reaction. Once you begin sliding on ice, it is difficult to do anything much about it.

Some years ago, in the works vehicle, I was taking a shortcut over the moor tops. I went round a corner, a slight downhill slope and there was a queue of vehicles ahead. I felt myself sliding a bit, but managed to stop in time. There was no sign of ice, just a bit of a mist. I got out to see what the hold up was and it became obvious - there were six vehicles which had slid off the road into ditches, including a police car. After an hour being stuck there, the sun came out, melted the ice and I was able to continue. At the bottom of the slope, was a bend, where a Landrover had failed to get around the bend and was sat upside down. The whole scene was quite surreal.

Locally, we have a stretch of road called 'The Cliff' above the village with a steep-ish downhill and some gentle curves. I was on my way home, having bought a TV arriving at the The Cliff following another car, I saw him spin on a bend. I was able to just ease off and go down in first gear, very gingerly.

 

[johnny2007]

It would be interesting to see what the clutches are doing (via diagnostics) but if VW say it's fine then all good!.

From Audisport forum I got a more definitive answer.
They said this more or less:
"My car has a tiptronic transmission with a torque converter, so no clutch to wear out.
Keeping in drive and apply foot brake when stationary is perfectly ok as per manual"

 

[Keithmac]

From Audisport forum I got a more definitive answer.
They said this more or less:
"My car has a tiptronic transmission with a torque converter, so no clutch to wear out.
Keeping in drive and apply foot brake when stationary is perfectly ok as per manual"

Ah I thought you had a DSG Twin Clutch!, yep Torque Converter will be absolutely fine with handbrake on.

 

[cdbe]

I was shunted in the rear at a roundabout, I was holding the car on the foot break, my natural/instinctive reaction (because I was suddenly moving and didn't want to be) was to press the pedal harder, which I did - I don't think it made much difference to the initial impact which had already happened but it stopped me being pushed onto the roundabout and hit by a lorry - I could distinctly feed my brakes fighting against whatever was pushing me forward but there was no secondary impact or shock. I'm not sure neutral/clutch in and a bit of handbrake would have kept me off that roundabout.