Australian Road Rule 126 (keeping a safe distance behind vehicles) should not be read as imposing so high a standard as to render it an offence to stop suddenly and successfully avoid a collision merely because a passenger is injured in the process. The fact that a bus driver had to brake heavily to avoid a collision does not of itself establish negligence in the absence of evidence of the distance between vehicles, speed, road conditions and surrounding circumstances. Stopping suddenly at a green traffic light does not of itself bespeak negligence by the stopping driver.
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