The document proposes a new multi-hop broadcasting protocol called the Intelligent Forwarding Protocol (IFP) for disseminating safety messages in vehicular ad-hoc networks (VANETs). IFP exploits handshake-less communication, ACK decoupling, and efficient collision resolution to significantly reduce message propagation delays and improve packet delivery ratios compared to existing schemes. The paper presents an in-depth analysis and optimization of IFP using theoretical modeling, simulations, and real-world experimentation.