It is common for groups of friends or family to follow each other on the road. It is a situation that occurs especially during weekend activities, such as trips, excursions or recreational outings. This practice, although it is full of good intentions since it avoids having to pay attention to the GPS in case of not knowing the route, can present challenges and risks in terms of responsible driving.
This is the conclusion reached by a study carried out by a group of researchers from Arizona State University (United States) and published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, which advises against following a friend or family member’s car to travel from one place to another. other.
The investigation, led by engineering professor Robert Gray, has its origins in an analysis, for a trial, of an accident in which the driver was seriously injured while following a friend’s car.
To demonstrate that it is a bad idea to follow someone you know, Gray selected a group of 16 students between 18 and 22 years old to carry out simulated driving under three different situations. In the first of them, the young people chose their own route; in the second, they had to follow the browser’s instructions; and in the third scenario the teacher made them follow another car. In all cases the journeys had an identical duration of 10 minutes.
In each of the simulations, drivers had to face unexpected and somewhat dangerous situations so that driving was as close to reality as possible. In this way, the authors of the study were able to analyze the behavior of the students behind the wheel in the face of the difficulties they encountered during the journeys.
After gauging the drivers’ reaction during the 10 minutes that each of the tests lasted, the researchers came to the conclusion that following the car of a person in the group increases the risk of an accident. Specifically, they observed that the students drove faster and closer to the vehicle in front of them than in the other situations presented. In addition, they found that drivers made more errors when following another vehicle than when guiding themselves or using GPS indications.
Among these detected failures, the authors of the study documented several specific situations: unexpected and faster lane changes than in normal situations, jumping red lights or not respecting the priority of pedestrians.
According to the researchers, this erratic behavior is due to the pressure that the driver feels when faced with the possibility of losing sight of the car behind him and the social influence exerted by the vehicle in front of him. That is, if he sees that the car he is following is driving above the speed limit or jumps a red light, he also does so to continue driving behind it without taking into account that he is also committing an infraction.
For all these reasons, those responsible for the study advise drivers not to follow the car of a friend or family member and, in any case, to keep an eye on the navigator if they do not know the route they must follow to reach the destination point. They conclude that the most responsible thing is for everyone to drive at their own pace to guarantee their safety and that of those around them, adapting at all times to traffic conditions.
