Tailgating on the motorway is still causing major problems and fear for motorists, according to a survey carried out by the road safety charity, Brake and Direct Line.
What makes things worse is that those drivers who are doing it, which amounts to 57% of the 1000 drivers asked as part of the survey, know full well that they are doing it, yet are clearly not doing anything to stop themselves.
Last year the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) launched a campaign to discourage what is one of the road user’s worst practices, yet there still seems to be a huge problem.
What’s more, the problem is striking fear into other road users, which in turn creates even more danger, as drivers are becoming more mindful and preoccupied of those who are tailgating them and therefore placing less focus on relaxed driving.
Speaking about their research, Rob Miles, who is the Director of Motor Trading at Direct Line, said: “Driving too closely to the car in front of you is asking for trouble. Drive too closely at speed and motorists risk not only their own life, but other road users’ too.”
The survey also raised concerns over the number of drivers who openly admit to ignoring and exceeding the speed limit with as many as 60% of people admitting that they break the 70mph limit by 10mph or more, and 30% admit to doing it on a monthly basis.
It is clear that the Government, who have been obsessed with making changes to bring down the number of claims for personal injury by cutting legal costs, should be focusing more of their attention on findings like these and how to improve driver discipline on the road.
A spokesman for the Department for Transport said: “Speeding and tailgating, intimidate other motorists and can cause accidents that cost lives.
“We take these issues very seriously and last year we increased the fines for speeding offences and introduced a new fixed-penalty offense to make it easier for police to target tailgating driver”
These new powers have certainly been acted on though, as figures last month confirmed that 6,000 had been fined since their inception, so it is clear that this is something that needs following up.