This 1971 color educational/training film from Charles Cahill Associates is a driver safety film about keeping safe distance between cars to prevent accidents, or as the film says, “Space to react, to take action, space to stay out of trouble.” The title of the film was likely inspired by Star Trek.

Opening: a man drives in his station wagon on a Los Angeles freeway. He drives with a cigar in his mouth. His driving off the freeway, onto city streets, and then overturning on a country road is shown in fast motion. A Highway Patrol car arrives on scene. Title: SPACE DRIVING TACTICS (:06-2:01). A stop sign. Four cars approach an intersection at different intervals: a woman smoking, a housewife, a woman with a hat, and a gum chewing socialite (all played by the same actress). The four cars drive near one another on a road. Title card: Speed, your relation to other drivers, your ability to react. Cars drive through traffic. Animation shows a car with extra space driving. A man drives and another car weaves (2:02-3:46). A police car will drive and do a braking test at 30mph. A shot of paint will mark the road. Two men drive in the Highway Patrol car. One of the men marks the road and the officer immediately brakes. Flares on the pavement mark the two spots, the signal and the brake application. How many feet it took to stop is shown. Two cars drive, one tailgates the other (3:47-5:47). One of the cars brakes. A police car will drive and do a braking test at 50mph. How long the reaction distance plus the braking distance is discussed. Police officer drives and slams on the brakes. A car slams on its brakes (5:48-7:04). A man in bed, a woman takes drugs. People party and drink. Cars drive through city streets. A man drives a Ford Mustang, notices a sexy woman walking down the street. He slams on his brakes, a stop sign, a crash. Cars including a VW Beetle drive in the rain. Normal traffic conditions on a sunny day. A tractor trailer truck drives with cars on it for delivery. A crew sets up cameras and cars to a driving experiment in the desert. A cherry picker is set up for filming from up high. A helicopter takes off. The drivers head for their cars (7:05-9:06). A man buckles his seatbelt. Helicopter in the sky. A man waves the cars over. A Highway Patrol car drives 47mph, cars identified as A, B, C, D follow behind. A signal for a panic stop. All four of the cars crash from behind as they were following too close. Camera car rides up. Aerial shots of the crash. The footage is shown again and again. C lost power and hit B, D impacted C. A might’ve remained in the clear but was hit by B (9:07-11:18). Camera crew and police car make sure the drivers are okay. The stunt drivers climb out, all are fine. Ambulance is there. Cars are looked at, they are in rough shape. Average American car is under 20 feet long. One car length should be behind per 10 mph. A woman drives,a man drives. Cars on the freeway. A faster car passes a slower one. A car is backing out of a driveway, a boy opens his car door into traffic, the car slams on its brakes (11:19-13:26). A Chevy Corvette is shown tailgating another car going up a steep, windy hill. A car comes down the hill and almost hits them. Another example shows a man in a station wagon not having the space, hitting a guard rail, going over the hill, flipping over and crashing. Different drivers are shown driving, some pay attention. A car flips over down a hill, tumbling over and over. The footage of crashes has been backed up. The word ‘Space,’ space to react, to take action, to stay out of trouble as a man drives (13:27-15:39). End credits (15:40-15:50).

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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com