Citation

Waddon A, Ross A. Police J. 1997; 70(1): 59-68.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1997, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This paper reports the use of a survey to investigate the risky driving behaviour of close following (tailgating), a major source of road accidents. Its first part reviews several earlier researches on tailgating. In the survey, 125 drivers, travelling on a car ferry between Wales and Ireland, were given an anonymous questionnaire for self-completion. 90% of the drivers were male and 10% were female, with ages ranging from under 21 to over 60. Over half the drivers had driven for over 20 years. The questionnaire was divided into questions about: (1) the driver's personal characteristics (sex, age, driving licence held, etc.); (2) the driver's journey using the ferry; (3) self-rating of driving skills; and (4) opinions about following distances. The drivers were also asked if they had ever been guilty of tailgating the car in front on a dual carriageway to make it move over, and whether they had heard of the 'two second rule' used for calculating a safe following distance. There was extensive ignorance about safe stopping distances. A statistical test was applied to estimate the correlation between drivers' answers on tailgating and their answers to other questions. Tailgaters were more likely to break speed limits and consider them too low, to rate their driving skills high, to be male, and to drive large distances per year. Attitudes; Behavior; Braking performance; Drivers; Driving; Evaluation and assessment; Hazards; Interviewing; Vehicle spacing; Close following

Language: en