New laser thechnology is allowing police officers to tell if drivers are tailgating and give tickets for it. These tickets are $41 dollars and also add up on your license and can affect your insurance costs.
First of all I had no idea there were laws against tailgating, I never knew you could even get a ticket for it. And secondly how am I supposed to know how far away from the car in front of me I am. it seems rediculous that you can get a ticket for something when you have no way of knowing wheater or not you are breaking the law. Just because they can tell does not mean you can. It does not seem like this ticketing should be put into effect until the laser technology is installed into cars so drivers have a way to know if they are breaking the law.
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The law is put into place to stop people from driving dangerously. There is no argument that tailgating another vehicle is needlessly dangerous. If they were to stop unexpectedly, the tailgater would have little or no time to notice, react, and stop in time.
Drivers do not need to know the exact distance between them and the car in front of them; they need to possess common sense. In my state, driving students are taught the four-second rule: When you are driving normally, there should be roughly four seconds of driving time between you and the car in front of you.
Police are not looking for people tailgating within the centimeter. They are on the lookout for those drivers that make the roadways less safe for the rest of us.
This is like having a spedomiter that goes up to 25mph and having speed limits that are 65. People can use "comon sense" and not go to fast but how can you give a ticket it drivers don't know if they are going over 25.
If someone is obviously tailgating maybe they should get a ticket but I am sure that you can still get a ticket for being a little to close and not knowing it because your car has no way to measure it.
Cops have to fill a quota at end of month, so well dont put yourself in that situation
The general rule of thumb on tailgating, as I was taught, is that you are too close to the car in front of you if you can not see where that cars tires meet the ground. As far as I know, there have always been laws against following too closely because it increases the risk for accidents.