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06/01/2008
By EWAN KENNEDY
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I saved a man a lot of money, time and trouble earlier this week, though I’m not sure he is aware of the fact. Let me explain: his BMW 3 Series was a mere car length behind the Volkswagen Golf I was road testing and we were running in a line of traffic, doing around 80 km/h in an 80 zone. He was far too close and tailgating for no reason other than a sense of urgency, an urgency that was possibly real, but much more likely was purely imaginary.
After checking for about thirty seconds that his car was still there and hadn’t been accidentally been placed in that position by the vagaries of traffic flow I very gently put on the Golf’s brakes. Not hard enough to cause a crash you should understand, but certainly I slowed the VW sufficiently to get his attention.
 His Bimmer closed on the tail of the VW, then its nose dipped as he got a surprise and hit the brakes. Then I accelerated to open up a decent gap. The gap remained and he probably put me down as being some sort of a fool, which didn't worry me in the least as my life had just become safer. And I do like to be safe…
Only a couple of minutes later there was a great screech of brakes and a cloud of tyre smoke in front of us as someone made a big mistake. One car stopped, the next two didn't, and yet another three-car tailgating smash became an all-too-common part of the Brisbane road scene. I stopped quickly, as did the guy in the 3 Series, probably not realising how lucky he had been. We both waited until the fuss created behind us died down, then drove around the wreckage and carried on with our driving lives.
Why, oh why, do drivers tailgate when there is nothing to be gained and so much to lose? Tailgating typically puts cars about half a second apart, whereas the ideal safety margin is two seconds. Therefore a tailgater can expect to get to their destination about one and a half seconds earlier, a tiny saving in the life of even the busiest person.
Especially if you consider that if things go wrong they may get there two hours late in a taxi. Or if circumstances are totally against them they may take a trip to a cemetery in the back of a hearse three days later. All for the sake of trying to get to their destination one and a half seconds sooner…
Once tailgating was the undisputed province of male drivers, now, for some dopey reason, young females, and some who aren't so young, are getting into the act as well. This may be an unintended result of female emancipation and a desire by the girls to show they can be as assertive/aggressive as the males. Who knows, whatever the reason, I don’t like it.
Whoever is doing it and whatever the reason, tailgating is a dangerous trend and we should all try to control our impatience in a world that seems to be becoming ever more frantic. |
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