He can stop any time he chooses.
Erm , NO !
That is not true . A driver MUST check behind before stopping or taking any action which might affect a following vehicle . Just slamming on the brakes for no reason at all or for a frivolous reason ( you stopped because you saw your friend at the roadside or to ask for directions or to answer your phone ) is not acceptable and if you caused an accident by making a sudden move which a following driver could not possibly anticipate then you would be held at least partially at fault .
Another time you should think twice before braking is if a dog or cat runs out in front of you : the normal advice is NOT to brake for one of these animals if doing so might cause a more serious accident than the one you would be trying to avoid . If you brake for a dog and someone rear ends you , chances are your insurer will hold you at least in part to blame !
It is NOT automatically the case that someone who runs into the back of someone else is ALWAYS held to blame .
It could be a child running into the road or another vehicle in front of him. If you hit him then it's your fault.
If you ended up stepping out into the road would you prefer an oncoming vehicle to check their mirror first and hit you - or hit the brake and stop in time.
Obviously , stopping in the case of a genuine emergency such as a child running out ( or even the classic case of the football coming out onto the road and there being the possibility of the as yet unseen child running after it ) has to be done regardless of whether the following driver can stop or not .
Similarly , if traffic in front has stopped/is stopping , you have little choice in the matter , but with forward observation you can anticipate these things and slow down earlier , perhaps brake earlier to give following traffic more warning , similarly with stopping in compliance with a red traffic signal - if the lights have been green since they came into view , you should anticipate a change and be ready .
Having said the above , we are all only human , and at the end of a long , hard day or a long period behind the wheel , we do get tired and that is when our reactions are sometimes slower and accidents like this can happen . It does not make us criminals or bad people ; if we can learn something from the experience then we can at least take something positive away from it .
Re the damage to the OP's W202 , the scrapyards around here are full of these cars - I'd hold off until I found one in the same colour as mine and then just buy a bonnet and a bumper to bolt on - no painting needed .
When I got my blue 190E a few years back it had some accident damage to the OSF corner - I got a headlamp and indicator from the scrappy for £25 , then I beat the wing more or less into shape and drove around like that for a couple of months until I found another Diamond Blue 190 in a breakers . The replacement wing cost me £15 and the paint matched perfectly . An hour or so of my own time to unbolt the old wing/bolt on the new was all it took .
Changing over a bonnet or bumper would be best done with an assistant , but just involves a few bolts here and there - as Neil mentioned , about £50 for a bonnet and I'd reckon about the same for a bumper . If your car is still driving and does not look too bad , I'd run around , visiting scrappys in my area , until a car in the right colour turns up - and save a few hundred on paintwork .
