On the highway, where cars travel even at 130 km/h, it is important that drivers maintain a safe distance from other vehicles. Thus, they have better visibility to brake in an emergency. But how much is the fine for not keeping the distance between vehicles on the highway?
Keeping a safe distance from other vehicles is essential to avoid a road accident, especially on the motorway.
And, to define more clearly what is the space that must be left in relation to other cars, a new law was adopted.
Failure to maintain the distance between vehicles on the highway
To help drivers keep a safe distance from other vehicles in front of them, the Government introduced a new rule this year. This is called the “Safety Distance”.
More precisely, this distance is indicated with the help of road markings drawn on the asphalt.
Guidance markings will be drawn on the asphalt, in the form of arrowheads, placed on each traffic lane. And they will be accompanied by a green rectangular traffic sign.
Drivers should maintain a distance of at least 2 arrows from the car in front of them.
However, keeping this distance is not mandatory, but only a recommendation for drivers.
Therefore, failure to observe the distance indicated by these arrows will not be sanctioned.
How far should you drive from other cars?
Traffic law requires drivers to keep a safe distance from other vehicles.
„The driver of the vehicle is obliged, depending on the speed at which he is driving, to keep a safe distance from the vehicle in front of him, in order to avoid a collision if the driver suddenly reduces the speed or stops unexpectedly” provides Art. 157 (2), from GEO 195/2002.A
Therefore, there is no set minimum distance that you must keep from other vehicles.
Which means that a driver will not be penalized either if he drives half a meter from the car in front of him, or if it is 30 meters away.
A similar provision is also in case of overtaking.
„The driver of the overtaking vehicle is obliged (…) to keep a sufficient lateral distance from the overtaking vehicle during the overtaking“, establishes Art. 150 (c) traffic law.
Sufficient distance basically means leaving enough space so that you don’t touch the car you’re overtaking. So even if you pass 2 centimeters from its mirror, it is considered that enough space has been left.
The only concrete specification is the one regarding the distance that drivers must keep from a cyclist when they overtake him. Specifically, drivers traveling at less than 50 km/h are obliged to cross the center of the road with the wheels on the left when overtaking a cyclist. And if they are over 50 km/h, they must exceed the center of the road by at least half of the car.
Source: www.promotor.ro
