Many times, when someone begins tailgating your vehicle, they’re doing it on purpose. They attempt to get you to move over or speed up, and driving aggressively is their solution – despite how dangerous it is.

It’s easy to think of these drivers as somewhat malicious or reckless, in the sense that they are taking a dangerous action on purpose because of something that they want. But it’s important to remember that there are also many unaware tailgaters who have no idea that what they’re doing is so dangerous.

Why Don’t They Know?

There are a few reasons that people do this. The first is that they may simply not understand how much more dangerous it is. They know that they’re not supposed to tailgate, but it feels safe, and they think it won’t really increase the odds of an accident that much. They keep doing it because they don’t understand the danger to themselves or to those around them on the road.

Another reason, however, is simply that they drive like this most of the time, and they don’t even understand that they’re tailgating. They may just think that’s how close you’re supposed to follow the next car. Maybe they’ve never been involved in an accident before, so they think that they’re driving safely, even though you can tell that they’re way too close and that they’re increasing the risk on the road.

In some ways, these unaware tailgaters can be even more dangerous because they don’t know that what they’re doing is going to cause an accident. If you suffer serious injuries in a crash a tailgater causes, you may be able to seek financial compensation.