A priority for any driver is to avoid having an accident and one of the best ways to reduce your chances of a collision, is to make frequent checks in our rear view mirrors.

As we drive our cars, we’re constantly changing direction and speed and by checking our mirrors, we can see if our actions are going to affect other road users. We need to check that another road user is not in a space that we intend on taking, or that another road user is not intending on occupying a space that we intend on taking.

By making frequent mirror checks and by properly acting on what we see in our car’s mirrors, we effectively create a car safety bubble around us.

On occasions, another vehicle may enter our safety bubble and create a hazard. For example, drivers that follow far too closely and who are termed as tailgaters.

You can’t do anything about how closely a driver follows you, but you can reduce the potential for a collision by increasing your following distance to the vehicle in front of you. By doing this, it means you can slow down more gradually, which provides the driver behind you with more time to react.

Maintaining a safety bubble around us while we drive requires you to make frequent checks of your mirrors and for your mirrors to be properly adjusted. Frequent mirror checks should also be combined with effective observation which includes checking mirror blind spots.