Public service announcement...the dangers of tailgating.
 

I know most of us avoid this simply to avoid getting any rock dinks & not smart to do in general, but it cost someone today.

I was in the 3/4 ton company truck on the hwy in the left lane behind a big rig going 75 & he was passing another big rig going 74.5...nothing you can do but hurry up & wait on these deals, right??

Well, what appeared to be a rather new gen6 was trying to get in the bed of my truck for some reason & didn't get a chance to see / take evasive action from a good size piece of big rig re-tread they are always tossing. (I call them gators) The rig straddled it easy & I barely cleared it...the Camaro, not so much & peeled off right away to asses the damage.

Anyway, thought I would pass it along...I was actually a little too close to the rig myself & really didn't have any room to do anything, but may have been able to save the guy behind me if I was a bit further back.

Apparently some people don't get this - tailgating someone doesn't make them go faster. If I'm tailgated I drive slower as I'm now braking for 2.

Amazing timing on this, i was just ranting about this in the off-topic section and mentioning exactly that - if a driver is tailgating me, i have to account for them now and that decreases my 2 second gap to 3 or 4 seconds.

tailgaters listen up - I CAN'T GO FASTER THAN THE VEHICLE IN FRONT OF ME!!! Well, i'm not stupid enough to do it.

another case for driverless cars.

apparently we have had brainless drivers for years.driverless cars could be an improvement in that case.

With tailgaters, I like to push the brake pedal just enough for the brake lights to come on but not actually slow the car, then accelerate some at the same time. Confuses them every time lol.

I drive for my job everyday. I cant believe the way some people will tailgate. Common sense would dictate that if anything happens they are toast. It must never occur to them. With all the distractions these days....its scares me.

Same here...300-400+ miles a day on average Mon-Fri. I could start a thread everyday on driving stupidity.

There's tailgaters and driving in traffic. I think some people confuse the two.

I'll drive in traffic with half a car length behind the person in front of me. Maybe 1 car length if we're actually moving at speed in traffic.

That's just heavy traffic driving.

If traffic is light, there's no need to keep such a tight grouping, so i dont.

The real problem tailgators are tailgating as a form of road rage. There's rage already there and that's why they decide to do it, so everything from that point on is a bad decision and will likely lead to more bad choices. That's what causes those kinds of accidents. Driving angry.

edit: Now as far as what someone is doing to me? I don't care if someone is driving on my bumper or not. I dont control how other people drive and I dont try to. If I'm not in the wrong by driving too slow or driving in the left lane ...then it's not my problem and not my concern.

texas here, most people know how to drive, but near the cities you've got some slow people in the fast lane....

now, i dont condone it...

but i get it in the fast lane during non-traffic times

1 car length at 65 mph...scary :eyebulge:

how often u change your brake pads?

Haven't tried this in the Camaro yet, but on other cars I have pushed the hazard light button about halfway in. Lights the tail lamps solid, but not the CHMSL. Most people get the message. Some newer cars have hazard light buttons that you can't push halfway.

No, 1/2 car length is tail gating.
1 car length is tail gating if you are going over 5mph.

yeah dangerous.

traffic safety norm is 2 seconds length between cars is min safe. at 65 MPH, that is xxxx feet. let me math for a minute.

holy crap my math...190 feet???

5280 × 65 = feet per hour, ÷ 60 minutes ÷ 60 seconds = feet per second? × 2 = 190???

5mph is 14 feet in 2 seconds.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-second_rule