Safe distance law on highways: Necessary or complicated?

Driving at 100 km/h on the highway but in my head I kept thinking about the distance numbers 35 m, 55 m, 70 m, 100 m from other cars.

Yesterday, I drove 100 km/h on the highway, looking at the car in front, looking in the mirror, observing cars on both sides and preparing to react if a car changed lanes. Now, I still have to estimate whether the car in front of me is 65 m or 70 m away. Meanwhile, the car next to me just needs to move in front and the 70 m distance I am keeping will immediately be reduced to 30-40 m.

At that time, the most important thing to ensure safety is not whether I remember the exact number 70 m or not? The most important thing is whether I recognize the danger and proactively slow down to create distance? That is the reflex that traffic laws should encourage.

Regarding the story of penalties for violating safe distances on highways, in my opinion, the ultimate goal of the law is very simple: for everyone to travel safely and traffic to flow smoothly. Regulations on speed, overtaking, changing lanes or keeping distance must also serve that purpose. The clearer and easier the law is to understand, the easier it is for the driver to do the right thing.

Highways are different from normal roads in one very important way: cars go fast. When running at 80, 100 or 120 km/h, everything can happen in just a split second. The driver must look at the vehicle in front, observe both sides, look in the mirrors, pay attention to signs and constantly guess possible situations. Therefore, signs on highways often have to be clear, simple, and easy to understand.

No one wants a driver going 100 km/h to have to drive and think too much about numbers. Of course, keeping your distance is good and certainly necessary for safety. The car in front brakes suddenly and the car behind drives too closely, which can easily lead to an accident. Having more space up front also means the driver has more time to react.

But the question here is not whether keeping distance is good or not? The issue is: is it necessary to set a hard distance of 35 m, 55 m, 70 m or 100 m and impose penalties based on those numbers?

Because traffic laws already have regulations to handle dangerous behavior. Speeding, reckless passing, unsafe passing, swerving, swerving... will all be handled. Not keeping a safe distance from the vehicle in front is also a regulated behavior. Simply put, the law already has the tools to deal with a person who drives in a way that endangers others.

>> Driving 100 km/h following the car in front but complaining that it is difficult to keep a safe distance

So with those regulations in place, adding a very specific distance table needs to answer one question: how much safer does it make the highway, or does it just make driving more complicated?

I think it is necessary to look again to see if the distance regulations with hard numbers on highways are partly repeating what the law has regulated with regulations on speed, overtaking and keeping a safe distance? If a new regulation really helps reduce accidents, it should be kept and strictly enforced. But if it only adds one more number for the driver to remember, one more thing to estimate when driving at high speed while dangerous behavior is regulated by other regulations, then we have to ask whether that regulation is really necessary?

Highways need to be safe, but highways also need to be simple and smooth. A good law is not necessarily a law with many regulations. A good law is one that regulates exactly what needs to be regulated, so that drivers can easily understand it, do it correctly, and can focus on the most important thing when behind the wheel: observing the road and handling dangers.

The Traffic Police Department determines that the main goal is propaganda and education to form conditioned reflexes and habits for drivers to comply with speed and distance regulations. The authorities do not impose widespread fines but focus on drivers who intentionally violate the law and continuously follow behind the vehicle in front despite being warned or clearly understanding the law.

A representative of the Traffic Police Department said that a sudden narrowing of the distance due to another vehicle changing lanes in front does not mean the driver behind is violating the law. Authorities will review the entire situation to determine whether the driver proactively maintained a safe distance or not.

"The regulation on safe distance is intended to create enough space and time for the vehicle behind to handle when the vehicle in front encounters an unexpected situation, not requiring the driver to maintain a fixed distance from all traffic fluctuations," said a representative of the Traffic Police Department.

Tran Viet