[wtm442]

I learned to leave quite a few car lengths between me and the car stopped in front of me a loooooong time ago. I also learned to always look in the rear view mirror as you stop in traffic.

When I was a teenager, I was with a friend in his brand new 68 Mustang 390GT and he had to stop in the passing lane of a major highway due to heavy traffic. We had been traveling at about 50 MPH when he needed to stop for traffic. About 4 seconds after he stopped he yelled "Hang On" as he dumped the clutch, yanked the wheel to the left and laid rubber as the Mustang shot off the road into the median strip. Then I heard a horrendous crash as the car that was behind my friend's car hit the car that was directly in front of him before he moved. The car that was hit was TOTALED. Actually, there were 4 cars damaged in the chain reaction. The guy must have been hypnotized because I never heard any "braking" rubber before the crash.

Olddog - you made the right decision ... and my friend also made the right decision too.