Editor:

            I have been involved in two collisions in the last few months, in late November 2006 and January 18, 2007, caused by drivers following closely and not paying proper attention to road conditions. In November a 26-year-old man who had his arms covered with tattoos crashed into the rear of my car after I had to stop at the end of a long line of stopped cars because of road construction in Lavonia, Georgia. And recently a 70 or so-year-old man crashed into our car on Interstate 16 after my wife was forced to stop because of an accident that had backed up traffic. Luckily neither of us was seriously hurt in either collision but the car damage was extensive in both cases. My car was a total loss and my wife’s car will cost $7,000 to fix. 

            This game of “tailgating” in which drivers purposely follow vehicles in front of them closely sometimes it appears to me 10 feet away at high speeds weaving in and out of traffic from lane to lane has to be one of the most foolish and dangerous driving behaviors I have ever witnessed. These tailgaters sometimes following tall and wide SUVs and jacked-up pickups impossible to see around or over evidently do not care if they have an accident, assuming they have enough common sense to know that if for any reason the vehicle in front of them should have to suddenly stop there would be a serious accident. I am not sure either of the drivers who ran into us was tailgating but they might have been.

            My wife and I did what we should have done given road conditions and we did not receive tickets. On the other hand, while he was clearly at fault, as was obvious and as he admitted, the local young man at Lavonia also did not receive a ticket, since the local policeman said he had a legal right to use his discretion about tickets, and he decided not to issue this irresponsible and incompetent driver a ticket. I do not know whether the Georgia state patrolman issued the older man who ran into my wife’s car a ticket, but I suppose he too could have been let off the hook.

            It may be that some people driving these days are so agitated, hyped-up, preoccupied, and distracted that they are dangerous drivers and deciders even if they don’t drink and drive, or take drugs, possibly caused by their heavy use of cell phones, ipods, car radios, and videos and their bombardment via those devices with spin and information about President Bush II’s accident in Iraq caused by reckless driving and deciding behind the steering wheel of our country. My fantasy is that some drivers today fantasize themselves as Humvee drivers in a war zone and real SUVs and pickups and real streets and highways as video game analogs to escape their troubles and boredom as they drive wherever they have to go or wherever they feel like going.

            To my relief both cars driven by the unfortunates who rear-ended us were insured. I have worried occasionally during my 52-year driving career about being hit from behind when I was forced to stop at traffic jams, but it never happened—until November 2006. And then in less than two months it happened again. When, I now naturally wonder, will it happen again?

            We need more enforcement of existing traffic laws and possibly a new traffic law with stiff fines to eradicate tailgating. I forget now the number of feet you were supposed to leave between your moving vehicle and the one in front of you on the road when I got my driver’s license, but it seems to me it should now be at least 100 feet.

Richard John Stapleton

Statesboro