Tailgating is linked to about 230 crashes a year in Wallonia

Updated 17 August 2026, 16:00 CEST — JAMBES, Wallonia — The Walloon Road Safety Agency warned on 11 August that failure to maintain a safe following distance is linked to about 230 injury crashes each year in Wallonia. The agency, known as AWSR, also reported that 27% of Walloon motorists surveyed admitted sometimes driving close behind another vehicle to pressure its driver to accelerate or move aside.

Nearly one in five Walloon crashes involving death or injury is a rear-end collision or a chain collision involving at least three road users, according to AWSR. Police records identify inadequate following distance in at least 14% of those cases. AWSR said distraction, fatigue and excessive speed often accompany the offence, while crashes attributed to insufficient distance are five times more frequent on motorways than on other roads.

Belgium’s current traffic rules require drivers to leave enough space for their speed and to stop before a foreseeable obstacle, but they do not prescribe one fixed distance for ordinary cars. The Federal Road Police recommends a gap of at least two seconds in normal conditions. At 120 kilometres per hour, that represents roughly 67 metres. Drivers can check the interval by choosing a roadside marker and counting two seconds after the preceding vehicle passes it.

The Federal Road Police advises extending the gap to three seconds on wet roads and four seconds on snow or ice. AWSR also cautions drivers against moving back into a lane too soon after overtaking or entering the space deliberately left ahead of a heavy goods vehicle. Trucks require more room to brake or avoid an obstacle, the agency said.

The findings sit within a wider road-safety challenge. Statbel recorded 36,968 injury crashes and 464 road deaths across Belgium in 2025, including 202 deaths in Wallonia. The new Code of the Public Way, scheduled to take effect on 1 June 2027, is set to place the two-second rule explicitly in the regulations for roads with speed limits above 50 kilometres per hour. Until then, police and AWSR are urging motorists to measure the interval themselves and increase it whenever visibility, weather or traffic conditions deteriorate.