The Traffic Accident Reconstruction Origin -ARnews-

Re: stopping sight distance

Rod Macdonald (frmrmtr@aol.com)
Sat, 7 Nov 1998 14:11:11 -0500 (EST)

Mr. Gorski Mr. Phillips answered the question as well as can be done in your earlier post. AASHTO and whatever local manuals have been established and used would outline some standards - but in the end, basic speed law defines safe speed as 'safe for conditions present', and the burden rests on the driver as well.

On my beat is an older 2 lane roadway, surveyed and posted for 35 mph. At one point this road crests a rise, then DROPS. At that point sight distance is easily less than 100 feet, perhaps as little as 50... and- at least in my opinion, as you approach this situation there's adequate time and distance to see that the world just plain ends just ahead...even absent the warning signs and flashing lights and reduced speed advisories - would it be reasonable to expect a driver traveling at the posted 35 MPH speed limit to to continue blithely over the precipice at that speed? Is it reasonable for that driver, to say to himself, "I can't see a thing, but the sign back there said '35'..."?

you have to look beyond the posting and the design standards and put youself in the driver's seat (how quaint...) and try to objectively decide what's reasonable given the totality of the circumstances...

At some point, if your still asking, then you may be asking a question for a jury to decide, or need to reseach case law rather than design standards.

ask a simple question....

Rod Macdonald
frmrmtr@aol.com

NOTE: You are reading in an archived session of ARnews. It is possible that this topic is still being discussed. To see if this topic is still active, or of there were any more recent posts on this topic, check later archives of ARnews.

If there is no current post, and you would like to add to this topic, link to the Current ARnews Discussion and begin a new thread. Be sure that if you are starting a new post that the thread title does not contain the abbreviation RE: Placing RE: at the beginning of a new post will confuse Hypermail and prevent others from answering your post in the future.

For example, to continue this discussion look for a thread titled

stopping sight distance

If this thread does not exist in the current archive, you can begin another one by using that title.