Message Monday - leave safe gaps to avoid mishaps
You’re in traffic. It’s hot. You’re tired, and the kids just asked, “are we there yet?” for the 114th time. You just want to get where you’re going, but now the car in front of you isn’t going as fast as you’d like. What do you do?
For many of us, the impulse might be to close the gap between you and the car ahead to signal your frustration. But tailgating and other aggressive driving behaviors can be dangerous or even deadly. And the aggressive behavior may spread to other drivers.
Without a safe gap between cars, whether out of frustration or just unsafe driving behavior, the distance you have to react to what the driver ahead of you doing is greatly reduced and you are much more likely to end up crashing into them.
Keep your cool and keep your distance. https://youtu.be/TkHpVjbldNs
For 2019, there have been 152 fatalities reported. That’s an increase of 10 since last Monday. The 2018 fatality count stands at 318. This is subject to change as law enforcement reports are completed. To see statistics published daily by the Office of Driver Services, go to the daily fatality report at https://www.iowadot.gov/mvd/stats/daily.pdf.