A police force has warned about the dangers of tailgating after dealing with three crashes on the M1 over the weekend.
The Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, and Hertfordshire Road Policing Unit regularly take to Twitter to let their followers know about some of the incidents they come across on our road network.
One of the force's latest tweets was from the scene of a crash involving multiple vehicles on the M1.
Yesterday on M1, we dealt with a 5 veh RTC. Today, two RTCS (4 and 2 veh) occurred within mins of each other. All three collisions were as a result of FOLLOWING TOO CLOSELY. Stopping distance at 70MPH is 98M. A football pitch, two marker posts etc....give yourself time. 412822 pic.twitter.com/mB2UIaOkjb
— BCH Road Policing (@roadpoliceBCH) November 24, 2019
On Sunday, police were called to two crashes within minutes of each other, one involving two vehicles and the other involving four vehicles.
On Saturday, officers attended a five-vehicle crash on the M1.
Police say all three collisions were as a result of drivers following too closely behind one another, and urged motorists to be responsible and drive with plenty of stopping distance from the vehicle travelling in front.
Roadside recovery service The AA says when driving, motorists should leave enough clear distance in front to be able to come to a stop. This is in case the traffic suddenly slows down, causing the driver to brake.
However, stopping distances vary depending on factors like the weather and how fast the vehicle is travelling.
The stopping distance of a vehicle travelling at 70mph is 96 metres and the braking distance is 75 metres - the equivalent of the length of nine London buses.
The police have not ruled out prosecuting any drivers in relation to the three collisions over the weekend.
We are trying our best.
— BCH Road Policing (@roadpoliceBCH) November 24, 2019
This post was in relation to education. It may be that prosecutions result from these collisions to bolster the pro active prosecutions we issue on a daily basis.
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