Truckers tailgate

More than one in 10 truck drivers in Ireland is guilty of “tailgating” -- driving too close to the vehicle in front -- according to a survey carried out last month by Continental Truck Tyres. Tailgating is an extremely common cause of accidents and injury, especially in winter when wet and slippery road surfaces make it harder for vehicles to stop quickly.



The Continental Tyres survey was carried out on several key roads around Dublin: on the N4 near Lucan; the N11 near Bray; and the N7 near City West.

At the N7 site, Continental Tyres enlisted the help of Tele-Traffic -- the leading supplier of laser speedgun technology -- who provided a speedgun with special software that can read the distance between vehicles in both metres and seconds, as well as the speed of each vehicle.

In one 30-minute period, a total of 10 trucks were observed tailgating -- four were driving too close to another truck and the other six were driving dangerously close to cars. The most extreme case involved an articulated truck travelling behind a VW Golf at 89km\h and 88km/h respectively -- the truck was only 0.88 of a second or 18.9m distance behind the Golf. BB

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