With almost three in ten drivers driving dangerously close to the car in front of them, tailgating remains a persistent problem.
This risky behavior emerges from a large-scale study of the traffic institute Vias, in which almost four million passenger cars and 400.000 trucks and buses were examined. The analysis shows that the safety margin that drivers maintain is often below the recommended distance.
It is striking that 58% of passenger cars drive less than two seconds away from the vehicle in front, a percentage that increases in the second (64%) and third (65%) lanes. In addition, tailgating is more frequent during weekdays and in lighter conditions.
More alarming is that 27% of passenger cars keep a distance of less than one second, which amounts to serious tailgating. This practice is most common in the center and left lanes, where approximately one in three drivers are guilty of it.
The new highway code explicitly mentions the 2-second rule. Currently, Article 10.1 (2nd paragraph) of the traffic regulations states that the driver must take his speed into account and maintain a sufficient safety distance between his vehicle and the vehicle in front.
'Sufficient' is not precisely specified, but you can assume with common sense that it corresponds to the distance a vehicle can travel in 2 seconds, Vias indicates. The rule is clearer for truck drivers: they must keep a distance of at least 50 meters from each other outside built-up areas. Drivers have difficulty correctly estimating the distance to the vehicle in front. Yet failure to adhere to the two-second rule is a major cause of accidents. Making the rule explicit in the new highway code should make things clearer and ultimately make enforcement easier. That is why a pilot project will be carried out next year.
The safety distance on highways is often not respected. To tackle this problem, a pilot project will start next year with cameras and radars on certain highways to monitor compliance with distance rules.
Current traffic rules are somewhat vague, as they only require drivers to maintain a “sufficient safety distance” without defining this in concrete terms. However, this will change from the autumn of 2025 with the new highway code that prescribes a minimum distance of two seconds on highways.
A clearer rule currently applies outside built-up areas for trucks and buses: a minimum distance of 50 meters. This rule is better enforced, with 70% of truck and bus drivers adhering to it, a number that rises to 80% during the weekend.
According to Vias spokesperson Stef Willems, adhering to safe distances is crucial. He points out that a third of highway accidents are rear-end collisions, often caused by insufficient clearance. Vias estimates that nearly 1.000 highway accidents each year are due to insufficient safety distances, which not only causes personal suffering but also causes traffic jams and broader mobility problems.
trial
Next year, during the second semester, a pilot project will be held on certain highways to determine whether checks can be carried out with cameras or radars, even if there are no markings along the road. Initially, the test will involve checking the safety distance of 50 m between trucks. Secondly, the test will focus on passenger cars. The cameras can measure the time interval between two vehicles, so there is no need to add marking lines along the road. In Germany, for example, such checks already take place on highways.
