I was driving down I-64 this morning headed to Berea, KY to meet with a new client. I was traveling in the fast lane with the flow of traffic. I will not say how fast, but I may have been fracturing a law.  I looked in my rear view mirror and there was a car tailgating me big time. There wasn’t more than six feet between my rear bumper and her front bumper. There were cars I was passing on my left, yet the car was still on me like glue.

Once traffic cleared slightly I stayed put and I was passed on the right hand side with a death stare from the tailgater. The car went on to the next car at a high rate of speed and got right up on the rear bumper. That car went into the right lane to let the tailgater pass and on the car went. At one point the tailgater attempted to make another right lane pass. The pass was made past one car and then the tailgater made a quick turn back in front of the car it had just passed. I have seen cars have more trouble parallel parking in that amount of space! I must say it took quite a lot of skill to make that maneuver.  

Luckily there was no accident. This same sort of activity went on for about thirty miles until we reached the Frankfort exit. As all this was going on I had continued to travel with the flow of traffic. Over those thirty miles I had only loss about eight car lengths on the tailgater. You can’t go too far in rush hour traffic.

Aggressive tailgating is a major cause of car accidents. Some studies suggest that following too closely is the cause of 40% of traffic accidents. When you are driving to close your reaction time is slowed, you can’t see the road way ahead, and you may not have enough time to stop if the car in front of you stops abruptly. Remember, most tailgaters are in a hurry and likely in a bad mood leading to poor decision making while driving, especially in heavy rush hour traffic. Be smart and keep a safe distance between your car and the car in front of you. Make sure you have control of your car. If someone is tailgating you should probably let them pass and not stay in front of them like I did this morning.

Prevent accidents don’t cause accidents. I would estimate that 80% of all accidents in my office are rear end collisions. Of those I would wager that at least half were caused by somone following too close to the car in front of them. Don’t tailgate. You will likely arrive alive and only a few seconds later.

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