Road Safety GB’s director of communications, Steve Horton, was invited to comment about tailgating in an article published on the Good Housekeeping website.
Steve Horton said: “Most tailgaters are aggressive drivers who actively want to intimidate the motorist in front of them.
“But there are also ‘passive tailgaters’ who just aren’t concentrating properly. Both create risk but the aggressive variety or ‘violator’ as we call them can be far more intimidating.”
Giving advice to motorists who find themselves being tailgated, Steve Horton added: “Always signal your intentions and start managing your speed well in advance. That will give both aggressive and passive tailgaters the chance to spot your manoeuvre and hopefully back off.
“You should maintain a safe following distance between yourself and the car in front of at least two to three seconds. This creates a small ‘safety bubble’ in case you need to stop in an emergency.
“This space will give you room to slow at a more controlled rate if you have to and mean the tailgater is more likely to be able to stop without running into you.”
Click here to read the full Good Housekeeping article.
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