Over one-fourth of highway collisions are rear-end collisions. There are 1.8 million rear-end crashes reported each year.
Your tools for prevention of the rear-end crash are SPACE and SPEED.
A proper space cushion in front of you gives you adequate time to recognize the hazard and react; it also gives you adequate space to stop. At 15 mph you can stop in 66 feet; at 40 mph you will need 174 feet to come to a complete stop.
Aggressive ( instead of defensive ) drivers may drive too fast ( making it impossible to react and stop quickly enough) or tailgate because they do not maintain an adequate space cushion. It is easy to test whether the space in front of you is adequate: watch the vehicle in front of you pass a highway mark; start counting “one-one-thousand, two one-thousand…” until you get to that same mark. If you have not counted 4 full seconds ( for a truck) and 5 full seconds for a tractor-trailer, your space cushion is not adequate.
Add a second for winter highways; add a second if your speed is over 40 mph, making ideal space cushion measurement for a truck 6 seconds and for a tractor-trailer 7 seconds – until roads are clear again. Rear-ending another vehicle is a PREVENTIBLE collision, and an expensive one.
