NC · jury_instructions
N.C.P.I.—Motor Vehicle 205.30
FOLLOWING TOO CLOSELY.
The motor vehicle law provides that the operator of a vehicle shall
not follow another vehicle more closely than is reasonable and prudent,1
having due regard for the speed of such vehicles and the traffic upon and
the condition of the highway.
The law does not fix any specific distance at which one vehicle may
lawfully follow another. However, what is reasonable and prudent
depends upon the circumstances, and the operator must take into
consideration such things as the locality, road and weather conditions,
other traffic on the highway, the characteristics of the vehicle being
driven as well as those of the vehicle ahead, the relative speed of the
two vehicles, and the ability of the operator to control and stop the
vehicle should an emergency require it. Thus, the space between the
vehicles is determined according to what is reasonable and prudent, and
the space should be sufficient to enable the operator of the vehicle
behind to avoid danger in case of a sudden stop or decrease in speed by
the vehicle ahead under circumstances which should reasonably be
anticipated by the operator of the vehicle behind.2
A violation of this law is negligence within itself.
History
N.C.P.I.—Motor Vehicle 205.30 (February 1989). N.C. Gen. Stat. § 20-152(a). Prepared by the North Carolina Conference of Superior Court Judges' Committee on Pattern Jury Instructions, assisted by the UNC School of Government; published by the School of Government.
Provenance
- Source
- sog.unc.edu
- Retrieved
- 2026-09-25
- Edition
- 2026-09-24
- Content hash
547eefc9da89e9332bee060d32a74a2dbb2dd619fc4babf808e48e07ae4134cf
The link goes to the issuing authority’s own document — the one we read to produce this record. Where a source publishes whole titles rather than sections, your browser may need a moment to jump to the provision.
Unofficial copy of government-published law, reproduced from official sources with full provenance. Not an official publication; verify against official sources before relying on it in a filing. Records in the 'guidance' corpus, and only that corpus, are sub-regulatory (interpretive guidelines, survey procedures) and are not binding law. Validity bounds follow each jurisdiction's declared temporalBasis.