Road scene · Safety and crashes
Stay at least three seconds behind the car ahead, and stretch it to four or more in the wet or dark.
What it means
A plate-yellow car travels behind a white car on a straight road. The white car has just gone past a roadside guide post, drawn as a dark dot with a white cap on the verge. A bracket labelled 3 seconds spans from the yellow car to that post: the time it should take you to reach the spot the car ahead has just passed. Any less leaves too little time to react and brake.
Pick a fixed point such as a pole or post as the car ahead passes it.
Count the seconds until you reach it, and drop back if it is under three.
Allow four seconds or more at night or in the wet, and extra behind a motorbike.
Right.Not quite. The answer is B.
Three seconds is the sensible minimum gap in good conditions. It gives you time to react and brake.
Source: Safe driving practice
Right.Not quite. The answer is A.
At night it is harder to judge speed and distance, so leave a bigger gap than by day, about four seconds.
Source: Safe driving practice
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