THE EDITOR, Sir:I WISH TO make reference to an article on road safety in The Gleaner of one day in December 2002 and comment, if I may, on the remarks by the writer about the safe following distances of motor vehicles.
A practical and effective formula has been devised by the National Safety Council of the USA and is taught in its Defensive Driving Course internationally. The conscientious use of this formula can be used quite effectively even in the 'cut and thrust' of the Jamaican driving situation.
The formula is simply one of maintaining two seconds in time behind the vehicle ahead of you at whatever speed you might be travelling. It works like this.
The driver in the vehicle behind picks out a stable point, etc. a tree, utility pole, an overhead pass, a line across the road, a pothole! some marker that will not shift or move. In a measured way, you begin counting to yourself as the vehicle ahead passes that selected marker, "one-thousand-and-one, one-thousand-and-two." If you reach the marker before you finish your counting, you're following too closely. Simply ease off the gas pedal and begin counting again until you establish two seconds in time behind the vehicle you are following.
This two-second following distance rule works at whatever speed, fast or slow, and there will always be ample space between your two vehicles in which to stop without slamming into the rear end of the vehicle ahead. I recommend this simple driving rule to all of our Jamaican motorists and encourage them to try it. It may save a lot of bent vehicles and 'crick' necks!
I am, etc.,
DENNIS HENDRIKS
55 DeCarteret Road
Mandeville
