Posted by lelkins
a resident of Menlo Park: The Willows
on Sep 4, 2019 at 12:32 pm
lelkins is a registered user.

Why would a truck be going so slowly in the fast lane in the middle of the night? I would think the truck driver should share some blame in this accident if this is true. But maybe this is an error in reporting and it was actually in the slow lane?

Posted by MaryAnnMP
a resident of Menlo Park: Fair Oaks
on Sep 4, 2019 at 1:21 pm
MaryAnnMP is a registered user.

A car is a 5,000 lb death machine. The driver - the operator - is responsible for operating his or her vehicle safely.

No matter how slowly a vehicle of any kind is moving on a freeway (or for that matter, a residential street), slamming into the back of it, at ANY rate of speed (especially a high rate of speed), does NOT bring the original vehicle into responsibility. There are about 100 different things that Honda driver could have done - including slowing down himself, maneuvering around the vehicle, reporting it to CHP if it was making traffic around it unsafe. And the list goes on....

While I am sorry he perished, this was clearly reckless driving on the Honda driver's part. Thank goodness he didn't kill or maim anyone else (I hope he didn't).

And not that it matters or changes my logic above, but as described above, the Honda rolled and came to rest in the right shoulder. So it may have been that the truck was in the slow lane. Still.... as I said doesn't change what I've said here.