Valerie g. Barnes Connell Jordan
Northern Advocate
I think when asked, most people would say they love children. I could be wrong though, because I’ve been passed four times in the school zone when travelling the required 30 km/hr and tailgated hundreds of times in between.
Years ago, in another community and another newspaper, I interviewed a RCMP highway reconstructionist. That’s the person who comes in after there has been a fatal vehicle collision. I went out with this man, who had 20 years’ experience and much training to do his job and was able to be considered an Expert Witness in a court.
He had a car full of equipment along with his expertise to do his job. I asked what the main cause of highway fatalities? Speed, he said.
That’s before I came to experience so many tailgating incidents. But, tailgating is related to speed as well.
I scratch my head to understand how people can be driving faster than the vehicle ahead of them and just continue till they are almost touching the vehicle’s bumper.
What do people expect? that I, for example, am going to do?
Do they expect I am just going to speed up, so they are not slowed down? Do they not have a clue as to where they are on the road, so just don’t notice till they are right on someone’s bumper?
The times one doesn’t get tailgated on either the streets here, the highway, or streets and highways elsewhere, is easier to count.
When I am driving somewhere, I have the responsibility to look after myself and those in my vehicle. And, to do my best to ensure the safety of everyone else driving on the road/street/highway I am using.
I have tried slowing down, honking, breaking and using my flashers. I also have had a poster made for the back of the car, which says “With respect, you come to close; I slow down.”
I have yet to put that on the car, as I’m not sure of the reaction.
What is it that gives drivers the sense they are entitled to put other people at risk? Do they think other drivers are there for their purposes, their choices?
Are drivers thinking at all when they are driving?
It’s scary on a busy highway to have a vehicle, you can see is driving faster than you are, keep coming up behind you, not seeming to notice you are travelling at a slower speed, in my case, the speed limit for the road, usually. Coming right up very close to your vehicle and not slowing.
For some reason these people seem to think they have the right of way, without realizing they put themselves, and passengers in their vehicles at risk, which should be a heads up.
Of course, it puts the lives of people in the vehicle they’re tailgating at risk; it’s stressful.
Recently, driving up the highway, I had several vehicles tailgating one another and no place to move over or pull off. The tailgater didn’t seem to notice, just keep coming.
Something I read, tailgaters are often impatient people with little or no foresight. Anyone who writes about this manoeuvre seems to live in the city where there are many lanes to use when driving.
We don’t have that luxury. We have two lanes for many kilometres up there in the north.
Tailgating is dangerous. If something, or someone, runs out on the road, or street, the driver has less time to deal with it, runs a high risk of being hit from behind and being pushed into whatever is on the road/street, which could be a child, for example.
Tailgating is where we get the multi-vehicle pileups on highways, resulting in increased injuries, even death, I would think. Although I have not done any real studying on this.
When I asked for an interview on tailgating with SGI, the woman I talked with just replied, “that happens up there.” I didn’t continue the interview.
Everyone I talk to here has their own stories about tailgating (those apart from the Ice Wolves tailgate parties) and other challenges on the highway.
Is it because it’s so many kilometres, people get bored, highway hypnosis, or something else?
In one way I think it’s a waste of time to try to figure it out, just stop it. Find a way to get people’s attention somehow to get them to understand the dangers.
In the province of Ontario, tailgating can get you a fine, anywhere from $60 to$1,000/
I don’t know about Saskatchewan. It’s a dangerous practice that narrows people’s chances of a safe, enjoyable trip on our highways. We all have a right to and deserve to be safe.
When I learned to drive, we were advised to always be able to see the tires on the roadway of the vehicle in front of us.
Let’s try to keep our highways safer, have respect for ourselves and other drivers on the streets and highways. The pain of highway fatalities is a high cost for getting somewhere a bit faster.
I did first aid at a highway accident in Northwestern Ontario once. A small car, travelling fast, pasted a truck hauling a small trailer. It cut in causing the truck’s driver to have to try and show to miss hitting the car. The result was catastrophic for a small family.
The truck and trailer jackknifed and ended upside down across the highway, and a young child died. A family was forever heartbreakingly changed, because someone was in a hurry. They probably never knew the pain they caused in their rush that day.
