VEHICLE COLLISION PREVENTING APPARATUS

In order to maintain a suitable vehicle separation between a driven vehicle with respect to a preceding vehicle, an electric controller 10 predicts a closest approach distance between the driven vehicle and the preceding vehicle on the assumption that the preceding vehicle decelerates at a deceleration detected by a vehicle separation sensor 12 and the like and that the driven vehicle decelerates at a prescribed assumed deceleration after running at a speed detected by the vehicle speed sensor 11 for an idle running time. The electric controller predicts the speed at the time of closest approach when the separation between the preceding vehicle and the driven vehicle is the closest approach distance. A suitable vehicle separation is determined based on the product of the predicted speed at the time of closest approach and a previously set length of time, and when the predicted closest approach distance is smaller than the determined suitable vehicle separation, a warning is generated by a warning apparatus 30 or braking force is generated by a brake actuator 40.