Faun
Diamond Member
- Nov 14, 2011
- 126,711
- 98,396
- 3,635
The rule of thumb of maintaining a car length per every ten feet is because that is the minimum distance required to stop in an emergency.Faster than he was going at the very beginning of the video. And fast enough that he couldn't stop in time without crashing into either the roadblock or the snow despite hitting his brakes approximately 10 car lengths prior to reaching the road block. Considering a rule of thumb where one car length for every 10 MPH is needed for stopping, he must have been going pretty damn fast.
Wow, just wow, ace. Your ignorance is showing, but since you are chanting the same mantra that the rest of the robots are it doesn't surprise me.
That rule of thumb is for the distance to keep between you and the car in front of you, ace. Nothing at all to do with stopping. But since you say it was 10 car lengths, let's see what the facts are:
The average car driving at 20 mph will travel 20 feet before coming to a complete stop, however a car travelling at 40 mph will take 80 ft to come to a stop – that’s why it’s SO important not to exceed the speed limit.
![]()
Source: Stopping distances - ingenie® Young Driver's Guide
So according to your estimate of ten car lengths, he was going what I estimated from watching the video: around 40 MPH TOPS. And I actually think he may have tried to plow his way around the roadblock and failed.

Your next fail is basing the distance on 118ft. When I estimated ten car lengths, that was based on Finicum's truck, not an "average car length" as referenced in the chart you posted. The distance he traveled was closer to 200ft.
Then add in how much more distance he would have needed to stop had the snow bank not stopped him abruptly.