When driving a vehicle, a driver must always maintain a safe distance from the vehicle in front of him/her to ensure that he/she complies with the recommendations of road safety. The safety distance depends mainly on the speed at which the motorist is traveling. Drivers are generally advised to leave a distance equivalent to two seconds of travel between their vehicle and the vehicle in front of them, as this time period theoretically allows users to be safe in case of sudden braking.

• The safety distance

Who hasn't wondered what safety distance really means? Although most people are aware of the fact that it means leaving a certain distance between their vehicle and the one in front, few know what it means exactly. If we refer to the Highway Code, it imposes a space of two seconds between each driver. It's hard to imagine what this means in terms of distance. In reality, this notion corresponds to the distance covered by the vehicle during two seconds, and takes into account the speed of traffic.

Indeed, when it comes to road safety, it is customary to convert kilometers/hour into meters/second to obtain an instantaneous speed, which will then make it possible to determine the distance covered by the vehicle, and thus the safety distance to be respected in order to avoid any collision risk.

• Some details related to safety distances

In some cases, it is the signs, the traffic conditions or the size of the vehicles that can determine the safety distance to be respected.

For example, traffic signs indicate a minimum distance to be respected between users. Moreover, in Khamsin weather, when visibility is less than 50 meters, it is automatically lowered to 50 km/h. Also the minimum distance to be respected with the vehicle in front of the user must be 50 meters. Finally, two vehicles weighing more than 3.5 tons following each other outside built-up areas must leave an interval of at least 50 meters between them.