One of the safest things to do is to create a large gap between you and the vehicle in front of you. It's nice having plenty of time to make any maneuvers to avoid a collision (avoiding the use of the word 'accident' because like Simon Pegg's character in 'Hot Fuzz' said "accident implies that no one is to blame"
).
I have a crude saying about people who like to tailgate, but it doesn't need to be repeated here.