Patent ID: 7782228

Claim:
An apparatus for detecting tailgating between vehicles traveling in the same direction comprising: a portable housing which houses at least one transmitter and at least one receiver, the portable housing is adapted to be mounted on the side of the road, the at least one transmitter is adapted to automatically transmit a signal substantially at a right angle into a preselected lane of which a vehicle traverses, the at least one receiver adapted to receive the signal as reflected by the vehicle to detect the presence of a vehicle in the preselected lane, a processor connected to the at least one receiver and adapted to receive information from the receiver and to determine the tailgating distance between a leading vehicle and a trailing vehicle based upon successive detection of the presence of traversing vehicles, a memory connected to the processor containing a predetermined time interval correspondence to a predetermined tailgating limit, and notification means for notifying a law enforcement officer if the determined distance between the leading and trailing vehicles in the preselected lane are closer than a predetermined time interval.