Let me describe the scenario here;

4 cars were traveling on the motorway head south. (Refer to them as Car A, B, C and D)

During rush hour for whatever reason, car A braked abruptly. Car B then had to apply brakes heavily, but had enough room to stop and did not hit car A.

Car C did not apply brakes in time/did not have enough room to stop and rear ended Car B. Car D then hit Car C (to the best of my knowledge).

I'm trying to understand how the "assignment of blame" would work in this case. I was always lead to believe that the person at the tail end of it was classed as "at fault" for the entire incident because the did not stop in time, however, I assume there are some situations where this may or may not be the case?

Does anyone have any first hand knowledge of a situation like this? or know how a situation like this would be resolved in terms of accountability?