Q: I'm New York state, what happens if someone pulls up to close too me when I'm at a red light, and I roll back into them?
I'm New York state and this is just a hypothetical: what happens if someone pulls up too close to me when I'm at a red light, and I roll back into them (I'm driving a manual car.)
Currently I have STUDENT DRIVER and ROLLBACK WARNING, STAY BACK stickers on the vehicle.
A:
New York is a comparative negligence jurisdiction, meaning that fault can be apportioned between the parties according their respective share. Since this is a hypothetical, it could be argued that the driver of the manual transmission car could need additional time behind the wheel to deal with such as situation, despite the stickers, and that the driver of the car in the rear shouldn't have pulled right up to the tailpipe. If you're learning to drive a manual, your instructor should not place you into such situations - worse things can happen than drifting back two inches to harmlessly tap a bumper. Try to avoid steep inclines, and try to avoid rush hour - that can have bad consequences in trying to learn a stick with tired and impatient commuters around. Good luck
Tim Akpinar
1 user found this answer helpful
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