Thursday, January 29, 2009

Tailgating again !

Do you ever look in your rear view mirror

while exiting a busy highway

in a snowstorm

downhill on a curved exit ramp

and see

NOTHING BUT TRUCK
three feet from your bumper?





I hate that !

I won't mention the name of the food distribution company who's truck must have come within three feet of my bumper on a very snowy exit ramp forcing me to exit much faster than I felt safe driving in those conditions.

As Safety and Compliance guy for a trucking company several years ago, I took a call from a lady about our driver bearing down on her in heavy traffic, she was terrified for herself and two kids in the car, she said she thought she was going to die. She later wrote me a letter passionately describing her ordeal.

Unfortunately this happens all too often and does sometimes cause drivers to panic and make a mistake which on the highway can be deadly.

It doesn't have to be a truck though. Some drivers can be intimidated into making a foolish mistake they would not have made otherwise by a car tailgating them or it could develop into a case of road rage.

Don't Tailgate!

Most of the accidents I see (and I see a lot) are from people following too close! Unfortunately we all pay in higher car insurance costs because of it.

Without the stupid accidents, our auto insurance rates would most certainly drop.

Leave at least TWO to THREE seconds between vehicles - in good conditions.

More in poor conditions, better safe than dead!



More on road safety at http://www.ezee.ca
Forklift Safety at liftright.net
See Truck photos or my other photos at donssite.com
or see optical illusions or web animations




8 comments:

L. Venkata Subramaniam said...

I like to let such people overtake. I hate it when someone tailgates. My car needs its personal space!

Unknown said...

You are so right there... I have been in an accident, where I had to slow down on a speed breaker(there are lots of them here in India) but the person behind was speeding and so close, that he couldn't brake in time and collided. No injuries, 'coz we were in a really big SUV, which was kind of safe... but I still get goosebumps, when I think of it...

Jackie said...

Just a wild guess here but is the really large one that has it's headquarters in Dallas and goes by a three letter nick name?

Walter gripes about them all the time.

Stay safe out there don. I just got off the phone with my honey and he was running into snow again.

Great post. your blog is looking good!!

I hope you're not layed over for the weekend!:-)

TechGeeze said...

Yes, i have read in that the standard distance for cars is about 3 seconds, its also brings a fuel efficient driving cause from limiting sudden breaking.

Btw,your links at EC Blog Coomunity is up.

If your going to add to your blogroll Sports Car Unlimited, Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Ugh. Tailgaters...we'll be talking about that.

Anonymous said...

I think we all get goated by tailgaters. Unfortunately some of them are dead, and the others will soon follow(hoefully not too closely!). :o)

Anonymous said...

Following too close is very dangerous, and anyone doing it to me is liable to meet a Dr Pepper can tossed out the window and onto their hood.

The Mind of a Mom said...

Oh yes this is one of my pet peeves! If I have to stop your not and I become your new grill! I used to work for a company that had a driver that did some pretty maniac things it was both funny and scary at the same time.