THE organisation behind injury prevention day has highlighted bad driving habits as one of the major causes of unnecessary injuries.

The association of personal injury lawyers (APIL) is encouraging people to think twice about their driving, to be aware of the dangers of tailgating and to ‘back off ’ when driving.

According to Wiltshire Police, 49 motorists were penalised last year for poor driving habits, including being too close to the car in front.

Brett Dixon, president of APIL, said: “Driving too close, or ‘tailgating’, is a bad habit of which many drivers are guilty.

“It is incredibly dangerous, as well as anti-social, and can be really intimidating for other drivers.

"In the UK we have 50 per cent more traffic per kilometre than the European average.

"This, coupled with bad driving habits, could cause needless collisions, injuries which should have been avoided and claims on your insurance.”

Martin Milliner, director of claims at insurance company LV= added: “On a regular basis we see claims coming through that could have easily been avoided if only drivers had adopted a safer approach.

"Encouraging drivers to “back off ” is something we believe is very important and we welcome APIL’s campaign.”