Question

Consider the following scenario. You are sitting in your car at a stop sign with your foot on the brake. You notice that the car coming up behind you is not going to stop and you are going to be rear ended. Should you press down as hard as you can to maintain your position or should you lift your foot off the brake? (Assume that there isn’t time to simply accelerate away and avoid the collision.)

Answer 1

since you are at stop sign the best approach is to press down brake as hard as you can to maintain your position and keep the car from rolling.

if you release then brakes will reduce the impact between the two cars, allowing the incoming car to impart more energy into your car, which will allow your car to hit you harder or you may get hit in side by upcoming traffic.

however if you lift your foot off the brake, it will minimize the impact damage to the both cars since some energy will change is kinetic energy and your car will accelerate.