28% of drivers reported experiencing tailgating on a weekly basis
Cameras installed by National Highways on four major UK motorways have detected nearly one million instances of drivers dangerously tailgating during UK trials. The figures appear to consolidate what drivers are saying with many reporting an increase in road users driving too closely behind them.
Dangerous tailgating is considered to be a careless driving offence and the four separate trials on different motorways used cameras to identify number plates and calibrate the distance between vehicles. A minimum two-second gap is deemed to be essential in fast-moving traffic.
National Highways recommend the two-second gap is increased to 2.4 seconds at 50mph and 3.1 seconds at 70mph and that it should be at least doubled on wet roads and further on icy roads.
The cameras are however able to detect whether the tailgating is deliberate or due to a manoeuvre like changing lanes.
The trials, between 2017 and 2021, measured “the capability of the camera technology to detect tailgating behaviour”. For our free daily briefing on the biggest issues facing the nation, sign up to the Wales Matters newsletter here.
The first trial was two months long and monitored drivers on the M3 between October and December 2017. It identified 237,648 possible offences.
An almost year-long trial carried out on the M6 in 2018 identified a further 319,787 cases of dangerous tailgating and another year-long pilot on the M20 found 226,282 cases.
The most recent trial took place on the M1 near Northampton and was conducted with Northamptonshire Police. In that trial 60,343 offences were spotted.
Despite the penalty for the offence being a £100 fine and three points on your driving licence it has typically only been enforceable thanks to reports by other road users or when a serious accident has taken place and the incident goes to court.
During the trials, although 844,060 motorists were caught, no enforcement action was taken against offenders.
In the most recent trial in Northamptonshire repeat offenders received warning letters telling them to fix their ways but that was the height of any punishment.
National Highways have however said there are no current plans to carry out further trials or make such enforcement technology permanent, explaining that it’s up to individual police forces to work on enforcing the issue.
They said dangerous tailgating plays a factor in “one in eight collisions on our network”.
A survey of 1,000 UK drivers carried out by Select Care Leasing found that 28% of drivers experience tailgating once a week and 20% say they experience it daily.