When one car is following another, it is the obligation of the rear driver to maintain a safe following distance. But people sometimes question what this should look like. Do they need to leave a car length between vehicles? Maybe three car lengths? 50 or 100 feet?
Often, you need a different amount of physical space depending on how fast you’re driving. So there isn’t a rule stating that you need to leave 30 yards between vehicles or anything of this nature. You need a far bigger following distance on the interstate, at 75 miles per hour, than you would while driving down a city street at 25 mph.
Counting off seconds
In order to figure out what a safe following distance should look like, then, it’s important to think about the time, rather than the physical distance. The trick is to just count off three seconds after the other vehicle passes a stationary object on the side of the road. As long as there is a three-second gap between vehicles, the gap should be big enough to be considered safe, no matter how fast those vehicles are traveling.
This is an especially important thing to keep in mind for young drivers. Their inexperience means that they often accidentally tailgate without realizing that it’s unsafe – until traffic ahead of them suddenly slows and they don’t have enough time to stop. But if young drivers practice the three-second rule, they will slowly learn what a safe distance should actually look like.
Unfortunately, tailgating is common, even among those who don’t realize that they’re doing it. If you’ve been injured in an accident, you may need to seek financial compensation for medical bills and more.