{"id":3175,"date":"2016-11-29T10:15:18","date_gmt":"2016-11-29T10:15:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onemoresecond.net\/?p=3175"},"modified":"2016-11-29T10:15:18","modified_gmt":"2016-11-29T10:15:18","slug":"do-drivers-know-how-to-keep-a-safe-following-distance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/do-drivers-know-how-to-keep-a-safe-following-distance\/","title":{"rendered":"Do drivers know how to keep a safe following distance?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s one of the most basic rules of driving: leave a safe following distance. But, it\u2019s also one of the most commonly broken rules. And rear-end collisions (in which a driver runs into the car ahead or is hit by the car behind) are one of the most common types of incident on the road.<\/p>\n

On any journey, on any road, on any given day, in any weather condition, you\u2019re likely to witness many instances of drivers following others too closely.<\/p>\n

Yet, regardless of how often we see it happening, driving too closely to the car in front is something that baffles me. After all, leaving a safe following distance is one of the easiest and most effective ways of avoiding a collision.<\/p>\n

And, even if you use all kinds of other defensive driving techniques, you can never be a true safe driver if you don\u2019t follow this simple rule.<\/p>\n

Leaving a safe following distance means you always leave yourself an escape route \u2013 and that you will almost always be able to take evasive action if you need to.<\/p>\n

So, could it be that some drivers are unsure of how to leave a safe following distance? Perhaps some people simply need a reminder from time to time of how to count out a safe following distance. Here goes:<\/p>\n

Follow the three-second rule<\/strong>
\nYes, that\u2019s right, three-seconds. Adding just one more second to your following distance can decrease your chances of a collision enormously (and in case you\u2019re wondering, yes, that is the reason for the name of this website!). So, forget the two-second rule, it\u2019s the three-second rule that will help to save more lives.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s just for good conditions<\/strong>
\nWhen driving in good conditions, with traffic flowing nicely, always use the three-second rule to help you keep a safe following distance. If the roads are wet, it will take you around twice as long to stop. If roads are icy, slushy or snowy it could take you up to ten times as long to stop. Therefore, you should always adjust your following distance to suit the weather conditions.<\/p>\n

Count it out<\/strong>
\nSo, how do you keep a three-second following distance? Simple: count it out. While driving, pick a fixed object up ahead (a tree, lamppost, sign, for example). As the rear of the vehicle in front passes that object, begin to count. One one-thousand. Two one-thousand. Three one-thousand. If you don\u2019t complete your counting before your own vehicle reaches that same object, you\u2019re too close and you need to increase your following distance.<\/p>\n

Maintain a three-second gap<\/strong>
\nSo, you\u2019ve created a safe following distance \u2013 that\u2019s the easy part! Maintaining it can be trickier. You\u2019ll probably find that other vehicles continuously pull into the gap, especially in heavy traffic. Don\u2019t get angry, frustrated or stressed out! Simply adjust. Ease off the accelerator, let your following distance increase and count it out once more.<\/p>\n

Do you have any additional tips for drivers to help them leave a safe following distance? Do you find it easy or difficult to maintain a safe following distance yourself? I\u2019d love to hear your thoughts.<\/p>\n

\"julie-signature\"<\/p>\n

E-mail: oms@virtualriskmanager.net<\/a>
\nTweet us: @One_More_Second<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s one of the most basic rules of driving: leave a safe following distance. But, it\u2019s also one of the most commonly broken rules. And rear-end collisions (in which a driver runs into the car ahead or is hit by the car behind) are one of the most common types of incident on the road. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3176,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-driving-for-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}