Always maintain Space around your vehicle to allow room to maneuver or escape a dangerous situation. Imagine that your vehicle has a “space cushion” around it, as the graphic shows.

Think about how many sides your vehicle has? Four? How about the top? If you’re driving a truck under an overpass, the top space can be very important.

How about the bottom? If you find yourself driving over rough terrain you’ll need to take into account your bottom reference, so you don’t “bottom out”.

Normally, most of us are concerned about the four sides — front, back, left and right. As you drive you must constantly adjust your vehicle position to maintain your space cushion around all sides. If someone cuts too close in front of you, drop back.

If someone pulls even along side of you and stays there drop back a little. If someone is following too close behind, change to another lane or touch your brakes to indicate that they should back off. Always maintain a safe space cushion.