Piggybackers dice with their bacon
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RESEARCHERS who monitored more than 400 vehicles overtaking on an A-road near Bedford are, says Care on the Road, particularly interested in cases where drivers (known as piggybackers) tuck in behind an overtaking vehicle and carry on blindly. It is a manoeuvre that horrifies me.
The minimum safe distance between a vehicle to be overtaken and the next oncoming vehicle, both
travelling at about 40mph, is 400yd, says Cranfield Institute 4 Technology, for which the survey was made. The researchers are especially anxious to discover why piggybackers "tend to go for small gaps more often than those who overtake alone", though two vehicles obviously need much more space than one.
Perhaps they derive a false sense of security from the shielding vehicle in front. fVlayb they are letting the leading driver do all the thinking. Or perhaps they just need their heads examined.