5 WHAT TO DO
5 WHAT TO DO
You’re driving along at the posted speed limit, relaxing and enjoying a warm sunny day. You look in the mirror and you see a car approaching you very quickly from behind. There is no passing zones for quite some time but, when he gets to you, he comes to within a car length or two of your back bumper and stays there; driving just left of you so he can see by you and show himself in your mirror, so you can see how dissatisfied you are making him.
You have a choice; you can speed up but he will probably stay close to your bumper, you can ignore him or you can let him know that he is too close.
If you speed up, you are breaking the law and have become as much as a safety risk as he is. You will also be the first one caught if the police hit the two of you with radar and you will probably be the one getting the speeding ticket.
If you ignore him, he will stay there and could become your crash partner, if you had to panic stop. The lives of your children, in the back seat, would then be in his hands and, if he is tailgating you, you know he is not a capable driver.
[I say ‘he’ but I have seen many ‘she’ tailgaters.]
What I do and would suggest is for you to tap your brakes a time or two to let him/her know that they are too close and they are making you nervous. This works for most considerate drivers and they drop back a few more car lengths, increasing the distance between them and you. When the next clear passing zone comes along, slow a bit and help them get by you. Everyone is considerate and safe doing this.
If they don’t back off to a safe distance, by tapping your brakes and flashing your brake lights at the tailgater, you at least have focused their attention on you and they are paying close attention to what you are doing. This has just increased your margin of safety and, as long as you can keep them focused on you until the next passing zone, might be enough to help avoid a rear-end crash.
If they are still making you nervous or they decide to keep tailgating you and not pass, slow down. This is the method of handling tailgaters taught to school bus driver trainees.
Hopefully, they will decide to pass you at the next passing zone. If not, at least, if they hit you, the impact will be less and safer than at a fast speed.
Also, by slowing down, you will have their undivided attention because that is the last thing that they want. With this attention on you and what you are doing, you will be safer than if they were paying no attention to you.
10 Km under the speed limit is completely legal but tailgating is never legal or safe.
A tailgater is making you drive for them and, as soon as they get on your bumper, they stop looking ahead for driving conditions and trust you to make them aware of any danger ahead. They look around, talk to and look at their passengers or start an in-car project that they have been putting off because they had to drive. They have just increased their danger to you.
If it is a commercial vehicle, a phone call to the C.V.E. boys with a description would, with enough on the same vehicle, start them pulling that vehicle over more and they will inform the driver that they are getting some complaints about them.
Remember, your safety starts with you and what you can learn and do.
Comments (9)
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Remember, your safety starts with you.
That is true but, by pulling over, they have learned nothing and will go on to the next poor guy.
Also, after doing this often enough they will begin to think that that is what I am supposed to do for them and they will expect me to give in to them all the time. They need some opposition to know that that behaveiour is not an acceptable way to drive.
I also recommend that not everyone do it that way for this very reason.
I am a proffessional and know what I am doing; those that are not should get out of their way and not get involved with the criminal elimente.
Sure speeding is wrong, but it is not your place to enforce the laws, that is for the police to do. Any officer will tell you to get yourself out of harm's way, record the license plate of the offending vehicle, and carry on safely.
A tailgater is someone who is already frustrated by your speed. Slowing down will add to that and may cause them to take unsafe risks. I pose this very real question because I've witnessed it firsthand: How would you feel, knowing you antagonized them to the point of making an unsafe pass and hit an oncoming vehicle?
Now it is my turn to respectfully disagree. As a citizen of Canada it is my responsibilty to uphold and enforce the laws of my country. I don't think the laws have changed so I, as a citizen, have the right to safely perform a citizens arrest and hold that person for police custody. Furthurmore, if I see a person commiting a crime and do not turn him in to the authorities then I am an accomplice and am punishable for the same crime that I witnessed.
We are all responsable to uphold and enforce the laws of our country.
As for the person that decides to take the chance and couse a crash, it was a stupid and regretable decission on his part but it was still their decission. People make wrong decissions every day and are not held accountable for them and now they think that they have a right to make them whenever they want to. That's why it is so important for me to show them that what they are doing is not acceptable; so that they have the choice not to do it. continued.
After seeing that what they are doing is unacceptable and they do it anyway, they have only themselves to blame for what happens.
It was giving in to wrong decissions that got us into this dangerous situation in the first place. Continuing to do so will only continue the decline in safety and logical thought process.
Selfishness rules, but it shouldn't be allowed to contiue ruling.
It's a hard line but the only one that will work to bring back a safe envirionment for our children and grandchildren.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjZt-4-_xMc
SafeMotorist.com recommends encouraging them to pass:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjZt-4-_xMc
Wikipedia states that the safest solution is to yield to the other driver and let them pass:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tailgating
They also state "Unsafe practices such as braking to force the tailgater to retreat or slowing down to "punish" the tailgater are sometimes practiced by aggrieved motorists and may lead to an escalation of road rage."
Slowing down will not teach them anything; there will be no moment of enlightenment, only a sense of anger and frustration. Allow them to pass safely, get their plate, and report them to the police. That is the proper and safe way to teach them a lesson.
Oh, and in my comment above: I was traveling behind two young ladies who were killed in a head on collision by a tailgater who made a stupid move. (cont'd)
You're telling me that you could honestly justify your actions and not feel any remorse in that situation? The driver above was not directly involved but by antagonizing an already aggressive driver, he had a role to play in two deaths that day.
I read all your reports on 'letting them by' and, if you can do it safely, that would be the best way and that was the way that the school bus training taught. They continued from that and said that 'if they don't pass by slowing down after a number of opportunities to, you would at least lessen the impact if or when they rearended you.'
I agree with you that letting them by is the best option. Its when that fails and they stay on my bumper that I [and agian, I don't recommed this for everyone. Pulling over would be wiser] take other action.
Anyone who cannot control their emotions behind me will lose them around someone else, sooner or later. At least I can control the situation and, by useing my skills and knowledge, keep everyone safe and give them time to remember and reflect on their stupidity and decide not to go that far again.
As I watch and evaluate other drivers, I can know how far to push them. There are more technics that I can use that I cannot list publicly.
I would feel sad that the driver choose to kill two people but I could not feel bad for doing what is right and obeying the law is right.
I do not try to punish anyone; I just don't let them tailgate me. Once they are past they are no longer my concern.
Everyone who is behind me affects my driving; I try to give them what they need; Tailgaters need to slow down, inexperienced drivers need to be warned of danger ahead that they cannot see, when I am climbing a hill and going slow, the traffic needs to be helped by me, etc.
Everybody needs something and I try to help them as much as possible. Those behind me and in my space are just as much my responsablity as those in front of me or beside me.
In the last three years in my area, I have seen drivers slowing down and spacing themselves out, creating a much safer driving community.