Occasionally I look at a driver around me in traffic and ask myself, "What can they be thinking?"

Today, I wondered if the driver behind me was thinking at all! Road conditions could be described as typical BC winter driving, but this guy was so close that I couldn't see snow between the rear of my vehicle and the front of his.

I was stuck behind a driver who chose to do 25 km/h in the posted 60 zone. It was a bit slow for my liking but it was slippery and I could not pass safely on the winding road.

There was nothing to do but follow patiently behind until conditions changed. I chose to do so about five vehicle lengths back so that I had plenty of time to stop if need be.

Two other vehicles approached and the front one ended up about three metres behind me and stuck there. I was thinking "wonderful, now all that we need is a surprise."

We got one in the form of a fire truck responding to a call. The slow driver moved to one side and kept going and I would have liked to pull over and stop immediately but couldn't without risking being hit from behind.

It costs nothing but a bit of consideration to leave an appropriate gap between you and the vehicle that you are following. In fact it may pay a big dividend by allowing time to react and avoid a situation that would otherwise result in a collision.

Think about it. Please.

For more information on this topic, visit www.drivesmartbc.ca. Questions or comments are welcome by e-mail to comments@drivesmartbc.ca. Tim Schewe is a retired RCMP constable with many years of traffic law enforcement experience. His column appears Friday.