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Surely on many occasions you feel ‘intimidated’ by the vehicle behind you. You go calmly driving to your work or to pick up your children from school, following the appropriate speed of the road; however, the car following you gets too close or accelerates to try to overtake you without success.
However, the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT), aware of this type of action, warns that “driving on the heels of the vehicle in front […] It is disrespectful behavior that can lead to an accident.”
In fact, the General Traffic Regulations (art. 54) oblige all drivers who drive behind another vehicle to maintain a safety distance between them that allows them to stop the car safely and without colliding with it.
Failure to respect this distance is considered a serious offense and carries a fine of 200 eurosin addition to the risk of an accident both for the occupants of said vehicle and for the rest of the users.
Circulate hot on the heels of the #vehicle forward does not show your skill behind the wheel against the inexperience of the other.
It is rather disrespectful behavior that can lead to a #accident .
Always keep the #distance adequate. #DriveBetter#ZeroRiskspic.twitter.com/MZlh0KbWBK
— Dir. Grail Traffic (@DGTes) April 19, 2022
The regulations do not specify the meters that must be left of free space for cars or motorcycles, but it does say that the driver must take into account the speed and the conditions of adhesion and braking. The rule also requires that this distance between vehicles be maintained so that another driver can overtake you safely.
Respecting this distance is of vital importance and when you are involved in a traffic jam it is even more so. Unfortunately, in these situations it is normal that very few respect them, giving rise to hundreds of small impacts that tend to worsen retention.
During traffic jams, drivers and conditions are completely unpredictable, you can get back on the road as quickly as you can stand still for half an hour. For this reason, we advise you to respect this distance as far as possible.
In addition, not respecting the safety distance is also the reason for the so-called ‘ghost traffic jams’. These are traffic congestions that occur without excessive traffic density on the road. That is, when, at least in appearance, everything would indicate that the infrastructure could adequately absorb the number of vehicles that circulate through it.
As an aid so that a driver knows with certainty if he is driving leaving a correct safety distance, the DGT recommends applying rule 1101-1102. Taking into account a driving situation on dry asphalt and with a vehicle in good condition, choose a point on the road as a reference (a tree, a lamppost, a sign…) and count 1101-1102 (it takes 4 seconds). You will carry a correct distance if at the end of counting you have not yet reached the chosen point.
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