Tailgaters
As a driver, your main goal in driving is to keep yourself, the passengers of your car and even the other vehicles on the road safe. Your driving instructor has taught you many skills in defensive driving to prepare yourself in dealing with aggressive drivers on the road. Tailgating is one of the many types of aggressive driving which can be very difficult to handle. Dealing with this situation is part of the lessons in a driving school.
Focus on your situation and avoid using radio, cell phone or anything that will distract you while someone is driving too close to your vehicle. Do not lose your patience to avoid losing control of your car. Your training in the driving school has taught you that tailgating is illegal. So, check on your local state for appropriate driving laws. In a tailgating situation, the aggressive driver behind you will take all the blame if he hits you. Chances are these kinds of people already know the consequences if they drive onto you, so as much as possible they will typically avoid hitting your vehicle. You can also pull over on one side and let the vehicle pass when it is safe to do so.
If the tailgating situation occurs in a narrow road, you can use turnouts to let the aggressive driver pass. Sometimes it seems that they just want you to go faster that’s why they tailgate. If you are driving in a winding road, your driving school lessons teach you not to increase your speed and change lanes that others cannot pass. Learn how to give way to others. If it is possible, drive a little slower and move away from the center of the road to allow the tailgater to pass safely. The tailgating driver can be an experienced motorist who have done his training in a driving school and perfectly knows what he is doing. Most of them are doing this for a particular reason.
Maintain your vehicle’s speed. Speeding up and slowing down to give him a message for this will only cause more frustration to the driver. Avoid creating a problem in case you cannot switch lanes for any reason. There are various laws in physics that will prevent the tailgater to run over you. If you are driving in a multi-lane traffic and find yourself always being tailgated, you may drive in safe distance behind a truck so that the drivers approaching behind you will see the truck and will choose to go on the other lane before even going near your car.
If the driver behind you tries to communicate through the vehicles light they might just want to ask you to move. If you are a student learner from a driving school, you must never forget to put “student driver” stickers on the vehicle because this is one way to alert other drives of your driving ability. If you cannot get out of the situation and the tailgater started to make annoying behavior, stay calm and let the law enforcers handle the situation.
