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HOW DO COPS CITE FOR TAILGATING? Several readers have posed that question after a recent column revisited the Rio Rancho program, which has officers using laser radar to measure the distance between cars and then citing drivers for what is officially known as “following too closely.”
Lmeinz emails “Rio Rancho police have said that they will be writing tickets for cars that are ‘following too close’ and are using the ‘three-second rule’ as the criteria for determining ‘too close.’ I thought that the three-second rule is a suggested criteria for maintaining safe distance that is taught in drivers education, and is a suggested criteria, not a law. What are the police using as the backup law for justification of these citations?
And Tom Ciccateri points out via email that the column “described Rio Rancho PD’s use of this ‘rule’ as a basis for charging citizens with a criminal traffic violation without any critical assessment of the lack of legal basis for this approach.”
Points taken. And the rule boils down to easy-to-remember methods for maintaining the legally safe distance — counting one one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand, or a car length for every 10 mph, or to be able to see the back tires on the vehicle in front of you.
First, about that three-second rule.
In Rio Rancho, according to police Sgt. Nicholas Onken, “Reasonable and prudent for the purpose of enforcement by our officers is 2 to 2.5 seconds between vehicles. National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration standards are recommending at least three seconds between vehicles during good road conditions. The safe distance increases as road conditions worsen.”
So when officers hand over a ticket for tailgating, what, exactly, does it cite for the law that’s been allegedly violated?
State statute 66-7-318 NMSA 1978: Following too closely.
Section B of the statute says that except when passing, or when following a motor vehicle escort as in a funeral procession, a driver “shall not follow another motor truck or motor vehicle drawing another vehicle within three hundred feet.”
Onken says city ordinance “mirrors the state statute.”
WANTING TO WALK FROM SIPI TO THE MALL: A caller says she would do just that down Coors — if there was a contiguous sidewalk.
A Google Map search shows there is sidewalk on the east side of Coors from Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute all the way to Cottonwood Mall, save for the small section just south of Paseo del Norte in front of an equipment rental company that has large trees and a steep slope.
That still leaves the not inconsequential challenge of crossing the free right entering onto eastbound Paseo del Norte, then under the bridge and across the free right exiting from westbound Paseo.
Assistant editorial page editor D’Val Westphal tackles commuter issues for the Metro area on Mondays and West Siders and Rio Ranchoans on Thursdays. Reach her at 823-3858; road@abqjournal.com; P.O. Drawer J, Albuquerque, N.M. 87103; or go to abqjournal.com/traffic to read previous columns and join in the conversation.
