OPINION
It seems that tailgating has reached pandemic levels in this country. I am in my late 60s now and we were always taught in driver’s ed to stay at least one car length behind the car in front of us for every ten miles per hour that we were driving. That of course means that if you’re driving 60 miles per hour you should be at least 6 car lengths behind the car in front of you. Four car lengths if you’re going 40 miles per hour.
It seems that any more that no one obeys this very important rule of thumb. And the roads have become infinitely more dangerous because of it.
The rear end of my car is such that there’s a headrest and a rearview light in my rear window. The trunk is also somewhat elevated. At night, it is quite common for the cars following me to be so close that I can’t even see their headlights. This means I don’t know that they are there ! Seriously, it’s a scary situation to contemplate.
On the interstate, even at speeds in excess of seventy miles per hour it is not uncommon to be followed by someone at less than two car lengths.
Naturally this all has the tendency to either (i) create unease if not panic in the driver in the car in front; or (ii) a situation where, even if the front driver wants to get out of the tailgater’s way, he feels that it’s dangerous to do so. Why?
Because tailgaters, especially the high speed types, tend to try to quickly accelerate in order to dart around the front driver. The problem is that the front driver doesn’t really know if the tailgater is going to do this or not. As such, often the front driver is afraid to either stay in his lane and/or try to get over.
For the elderly and/or nervous types this creates a situation that is fraught with danger and makes driving a sometimes terrorizing experience.
I remember back 20 years ago, I had a car that had an intermittent “cut-off” problem, that I went months trying to get fixed, but couldn’t. That car would be going down the road just fine and then for some totally unexpected reason just cut off. And there was no predicting when this would happen, but when it did I lost all power, including the power steering !! I would have to somehow get that car out of the flow of traffic and over on to the shoulder of the road. Thank God, I had that problem about 20 years ago and not now ! I’d be dead for sure.
The fact of the matter is that a tailgater has only an obstructed and limited field of vision. The tailgater cannot see potential problems in front of the driver in front of him. Extremely dangerous situations arise that are just ripe for an accident when the driver of the front car confronts a situation that he (the front driver) does not expect, such as a child, another car or an animal unexpectedly entering the road. The driver in front may automatically as a reflexive reaction slam on the brakes. In such a situation the tailgater, not seeing the child, animal or car, has no real ability to safely respond. An accident causing considerable property damage and worse, severely injuring the front driver, the tailgater and perhaps even persons in front of those two parties may ensue. This because the tailgater may push, in a chain reaction, the front car into another car if the tailgater back-ends the front car hard enough. Head, brain and neck injuries and even death can ensue.
In short, tailgaters are dangerous not only to the front driver but everyone else in the immediate vicinity.
All I can say is that there should be centralized national reporting system where folks can pay $3 or whatever to report tailgaters. [The fee would be so someone would be less likely to make a false report] You could only report someone once. This would somewhat prevent personal vendetta reporting. But if the alleged tailgater got x number of reports (all from different people), they would be put on a list of tailgaters that would be sent to all automobile insurers. This would undoubtedly increase their personal insurance rates perhaps substantially, which in turn would make them uninsurable and/or cause them to practice safer driving habits. (Over time or by taking certain driver safety courses, these “points” could be removed from the tailgater’s record.) This might be the only viable means of “penalizing” tailgaters because due process of law and the right to confront witnesses might preclude fining, suspension of driver’s license or incarceration as possible penalties.
I’m too lazy to research it but I’ve seen some figures where over 25 percent of accidents are caused in part by tailgating. I’m not sure that’s true, but what the heck are the driver’s ed teachers teaching anyway? Tailgaters are dangerous no matter how one looks at it.
Well, that’s my idea. What’s yours?
Before closing I would just say this to all you tailgaters out there. I am a lawyer and I will tell you that if you do cause or get into an accident, 99 percent of the time you (or your insurer) are going to be held liable or at fault and responsible for paying a lot of property damage and/or damages for personal injuries ( such as hospital, medical and rehabilitation costs). It is a rare case where the courts or juries find the tailgater not liable. At the very least, eventually you are going to pay higher insurance rates for tailgating.
David Dixon Lentz
Copyright 2021; David Dixon Lentz, All Rights Reserved.
September 22, 2021 (2d rev)