In these days of hectic lifestyles, increasing traffic problems, and impatient drivers with so much to do, and no time to get where they are going, tailgating is becoming an ever increasing problem. Aggressive driving and road rage are rampant, inherent with the rapid increase in the use of personal transportation, because of lack of public transportation services in many places and for convenience or necessity in others, which has outstripped the capacity of most roads. Drivers feel that by getting as close as they can to the vehicle in front of them, and often using hand gestures, mouthed curses, and generous beeps of their car horns, they can make the traffic move faster. The truth is, they canÆt, and tailgating inevitably leads to more accidents.
Tailgating, the practice of driving very close to the car in front of you, is a dangerous practice for many reasons. According to the manual of the Department of Motor Vehicles in California, driving too close to the vehicle in front of you obstructs your view of the road ahead (DMV). The more space you leave between your vehicle and the one in front of you, they point out, the more warning you will have of hazardous conditions on the road ahead, and so the more time you have to react to them, slow down, and/or avoid them. The DMV recommends using the three-second rule for leaving a safe distance between you and the car ahead: make sure three seconds elapses between the car ahead of you passing a certain point and you passing it. They also point out that most rear end accidents are caused by tailgating. To lose a tailgater, they recommend losing them by letting them pass, or pulling over and letting them do so, and that you should make sure you stop slowly when you need to, leaving room in front of you in case you need to pull forward and give the tailgater more room to stop.
A new law in Georgia makes it an offence to drive aggressively, which is what tailgaters do, in...