You were at fault in this accident. You are required to maintain control of your vehicle at all times, regardless of road and weather conditions. You should maintain at least 1 car length for every 10 miles per hour, behind the vehicle which you are following. You stated that you were only traveling 52 MPH in a 60 MPH zone, this still was too fast for road conditions obviously, since you could not stop in a cleared distance ahead and struck a vehicle in front of you.
There are exceptions - if it can be shown that the driver braked did so with the intention of causing a collision as compared with avoiding a legitimate road hazard. See the related link entitled "car accident fraudulent claims" to see a discussion about fraudulent motor accident claims in the UK.
Note: There are comments associated with this question. See the
discussion page
to add to the conversation.
In this case, the driver who struck the vehicle (you) would probably be found at-fault; however, it's best to file a police report and make sure that there are no local exceptions for negligence, but...
Car A will be to blame unless they can manage to get strong proof that car B was going in reverse along the highway. The cops go by where the damage is on the vehicle so they will blame car A for...
Impossible to answer the question without seeing a diagram or a detailed statement of facts. It sounds like both drivers were negligent and if any charges were to be placed (which they probably won't...
Car 1 for causing car 2 to hit car 1.
Car 3 for hitting car 2 (was obviously too close to car 2) as they we're not observing safe stopping distances between cars.
Usually the fault lies with the person who was behind you, if you were on public streets. However, if you were pulling out of a parking space on private, not public, property then the responsibility...