| <> There are ways to try to lessen danger on the road! |
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| Tailgators: All Shapes, All Sizes, All Angles, All Speeds--with one common denominator: They're all Dangerous |
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Tailgators often cause others to tailgate!! Example. Picture yourself driving in the middle lane of a three lane highway--with no one in front of you. Everything is cool... up until the point when you look in your driver side mirror and see there is a car in the left lane rapidly gaining on you. You also notice that right behind them is a tailgator--whose aggressive driving is pushing them forward at a high rate of speed. Since you have been driving safely there is plenty of space between you and the car in front of you. But unfortunately for you...the person who is being tailgated sees the space in front of you as a place he can jump to in order to get out of the way of the tailgator!! People who are being tailgated are grateful to see a space to their right, so they can change lanes and let the tailgator pass them by. So, as soon as the driver in the left lane passes ahead of your position, he will change lanes and end up directly in front of you! This changes you from "Suzy Safe Driver" to "Suzy the tailgator," because there is now a vehicle directly in front of you! Whoa, wait a minute! This causes you to quickly apply the brakes to fall back and give yourself some saf-t-space. We've talked about this situation several times, and realized that for many years we all drove our cars not realizing how often we were "turned into tailgators" by this chain of events. Once we caught on to it, we saw that it happened almost daily! Now, because we see what's coming, we start to slow even before the cars on the left pass us by, so that we start to create saf-t-space between our car and the car that's about to change lanes right in front of us. |
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| Tailgators cause many different types of danger! We have listed below a couple of our most- often -seen scenarios involving Tailgators. |
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| Tailgators are safety haters! |
| After An Accident: RECOVERY Help is available |
| Make no mistake about it, Mom, the true "danger" from tailgating is the lack of space between the vehicles. Tailgating can be side-to-side as well as front to rear. For example, if someone is driving in your blind spot for an extended period, they are just as dangerous to you as if they are on your back bumper, |
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| And now you know it's true when we say: |
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| TAILGATORS often make us "TAILGATORS" too! |
| because they are not giving you sufficient space to react to an unforeseen event. Tailgating, at any speed, under any conditions, takes away your saf-t-space. |
Tailgators often cause us to make hasty, incorrect decisions. Example. Picture yourself driving along, no traffic around you, and you're enjoying another kick in the stomach from your soon-to-be-born baby. All of a sudden there is a large presence in your rearview mirror. You can tell instantly that they are no more than 6 inches from your rear bumper, and in the blink-of-an-eye your blood pressure shoots skyward and your heart palpatates like a drum! You look to the side to see if you can quickly change lanes but other cars have joined you and the tailgator--and you are now surrounded! Because you have been driving safely, there is still some space to the front of you, so you accelerate in an effort to create some space between you, the cars on the side of you, and the tailgator. Unfortunately, this is just what the tailgator wanted, so they are happy to go faster and stay connected to your bumper in an effort to move the speedometers even higher! At this point you would give anything just to see the tailgator disappear. Right!? So what should you do? Speed up? Slow down? Wave a finger? Shake a fist? Change lanes? Ignore the situation and quit looking in the mirror?? The correct answer is: JUST DON'T PANIC, Mom! Making a hasty, wrong decision could place you in the sorry position of being the driver who makes the first move that causes a chain of events leading to a serious accident. Therefore the first thing you should do when you find yourself in this situation is to QUIT LOOKING IN THE REARVIEW MIRROR. Your responsibility is to the world in front of you, so stay focused on it. However, knowing you have a situation you have to change, the best thing to do is FIND AN EXIT SIGN and get the heck out of harms way! If there is a cross street or a mall parking lot just ahead of you, make it your exit to safety! Step #1 Turn on your turning signal, either left or right, depending on where you intend to go. Step #2 After the signal has blinked a few times, start to slowly apply the brakes, just enough to illuminate your brake lights. At this point your tailgator is either looking for a way to go around you, or they have resigned themselves to simply slowling their car to wait for you to turn. The dynamic here is that YOU HAVE TAKEN CONTROL of the situation. You did not panic and thus make a hasty move to get out of harm's way. And just as importantly, you have started to slow your vehicle, so that if something terrible does happen, at least you're traveling at a lower speed when it occurs! Though this exit to safety may cause you to be delayed for a few minutes before you continue your trip, it's worth it! Your blood pressure will quickly return to normal and you can then re enter the flow of traffic when you see the appropriate room for your vehicle. Regardless of the situation....STAY IN CONTROL...rather than risk losing control! |
| TAILGATORS cause us to panic and make mistakes! |
| Example #2 |
| Example #1 |
| You can take more control and reduce the chances of an accident or injuries resulting from being tailgated |
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| Drivers behind this sign BACK AWAY |
| IT DOES WHAT YOU WANT IT TO DO! |
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Minimize the danger |
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| We're working on tougher laws.. like those that protect highway workers. Our Kids need and deserve extra protection! |
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| We're also working on keeping families safer on the highway by alerting other drivers |
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| ..and growing families on the GO! |
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Many parents we've talked to feel that once their child is in a booster seat, they're "big kids" and thus Mom and Dad no longer have to be so cautious in traffic. LEARN MORE ABOUT WHY OLDER CHILDREN IN VEHICLES NEED PROTECTION AS MUCH AS ANY OTHER AGE GROUP...IF NOT MORE SO THAN ANY OTHER GROUP. "BOOSTER SEAT KIDS" are those children, approximately four years old up to eight years and older, who should be using booster car seats. The VERY CRITICAL point that many parents overlook, is the fact that this age group is traveling on the street for MANY HOURS EACH WEEK. Therefore, they are exposed to dangerous drivers, greater highway congestion, and higher travel speeds than when they were newborns. BOOSTER SEAT KIDS travel to preschool, day care, friends homes, shopping with mom, doctors, dentists, restaurants, soccer and other sports events. Their schedules keep them on the go! You can provide extra protection for them, by keeping reckless drivers and tailgaters away from the back of your vehicle. Here's how! The first thing you should do is the easiest; place a safety magnet on the back of your car. Then continue to read the information on our website and elsewhere, to become fully aware of how you can avoid being caught in those situations where reckless drivers can cause you great harm. |
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| Comprehensive Statistics; Crash data, Occupant protection, etc. through 2006 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration |
| More For Parents |
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