There’s nothing more frustrating than being tailgated. We’ve all experienced it, that annoying, distracting, and dangerous pressure from a vehicle riding too close behind us. Beyond being irritating, tailgating is illegal and classified as careless driving. It can lead to a £100 fine and three penalty points on your licence.
According to a recent study by Highways England, tailgaters are responsible for one in eight road crashes. Each year, more than 100 people are killed or seriously injured in accidents caused by tailgating motorists. Contrary to what some might think, braking suddenly to warn a tailgater isn’t the answer.
In fact, National Highways warns that deliberately slowing down or tapping your brakes to annoy the car behind can escalate road rage and create even more hazardous situations.
Annie Winterburn, who runs Spot On Driving, has offered practical advice for handling tailgaters safely, BirminghamLive reported.
She said: “If the car behind is too close to you and you have to brake suddenly, that car behind you will crash into the back of you. So you have to make sure you don’t have to brake suddenly.”
Annie recommends leaving a “bigger gap between your car and the car in front of you”.
Leaving a larger gap means you can slow down gradually if the car ahead stops suddenly which will give the tailgater more time to react safely.
Annie added: “You should leave at least a two-second time gap, on dry roads, between your car and the vehicle in front of you. This is doubled to four seconds on wet roads – and is ten times the gap on icy roads. Ten times the gap is 20 seconds.”
Additional advice from National Highways on how to avoid tailgating includes allowing the car to overtake you and maintaining the same steady speed without speeding up or slowing down.
Clearly signal your intentions early to give the driver behind you a better understanding of your next move, helping to avoid misunderstandings, and stay in the left-hand lane unless you are overtaking.
It’s important to remain calm and in control, as reacting negatively to tailgaters often escalates the situation and creates more problems.