Speed limits and safe following distance
Speed is never a single number. The posted limit is a ceiling; the safe speed is the one that lets you stop within the distance you can see to be clear.
Choosing speed
Near schools, markets, maneaba, villages, and anywhere pedestrians, children or animals share the carriageway, slow well below the limit. In rain, on coral dust, sand, gravel or a salt-slicked causeway, reduce further. Night driving is limited by your headlights: never drive faster than the distance your low beam shows.
The two-second rule
Pick a fixed object ahead. When the vehicle in front passes it, count 'one thousand and one, one thousand and two'. If you reach the object before you finish, you are too close. In rain or poor visibility use four seconds. Stopping distance grows with the square of speed - doubling speed roughly quadruples the distance needed.
Space to stop
Leave room to stop if the vehicle ahead brakes suddenly, plus a side cushion for motorcyclists and pedestrians.
Worked example
You follow a copra truck on a wet causeway at about 40 km/h. The truck passes a marker and you reach it after a count of one second. Reasoning: wet surface plus one second of gap means you cannot stop if the truck brakes. Action: ease off, rebuild the gap to four seconds, and do not begin an overtake until the line is broken and the view is clear.
Traps
Treating the limit as a target; using 'my brakes are good' to justify tailgating; counting two seconds in heavy rain; following a motorcycle closely because it 'stops quickly' - it does, and you may not.