Nearly 3 out of 10 drivers keeps less than one second’s distance on the motorway and is guilty of tailgating. It’s a fact that a majority of drivers fail to keep sufficient distance and drive too close to the car in front of them. The figures come from a survey conducted by traffic institute Vias. Truck and bus drivers, it appears, keep more distance.
on the motorways a majority of car drivers drive too close to the vehicle in front of them. Vias observed nearly 4 million cars and 400,000 buses and trucks as part of their survey. Traffic jams and slow traffic (less than 50 kilometres per hour) were not included in the observations.
58 per cent of cars drive less than 2 seconds from the rear bumper of the car in front. The problem is more common in the middle (64 per cent) and fast (65 per cent) lanes than in the slow lane (49 per cent). It also occurs more often on weekdays than at the weekends, and also more often when it is light than when it is dark.
And there is more: 27 per cent of cars maintain a distance of less than one second and are guilty of tailgating. On the middle and fast lanes, even 1 in 3 drivers are tailgating.
What does the law say?
The traffic regulations currently only state that as a driver, you must keep "sufficient safety distance" from the car in front of you. Exactly how much that is, is not mentioned.
From autumn 2025, this will change. The new highway code states that the safety distance between 2 vehicles must be at least two seconds in zones where the speed exceeds 50 kilometres per hour.
Trucks and buses are already obliged to maintain a minimum distance of 50 metres outside built-up areas.
The situation is slightly better among drivers of heavy vehicles. 7 out of 10 truck and bus drivers follow the traffic regulations and keep at least 50 metres’ distance from each other. During weekends, the figure is as high as 8 out of 10.
"Keeping distance can prevent 1,000 accidents a year"
Keeping distance is important, says Vias. "A third of accidents on the motorway are rear-end collisions, mostly because no safe distance was kept," says VIAS spokesman Stef Willems. "1 in 5 accidents is a chain collision involving at least 3 vehicles."
According to Vias, 70% of rear-end collisions are due to insufficient safety distances, often combined with other factors such as fatigue, mobile phone use or excessive speed. On motorways, almost 1,000 accidents occur in Belgium every year due to failure to respect safety distances. These accidents also cause traffic jams and have a greater impact on mobility in general.
In the course of next year, a pilot project with the aim of checking whether it is possible to use cameras or radars to check whether sufficient distances are kept, starts on several motorways.