Media Centre : Interesting Facts & Figures

Vehicle Braking Guide

Below is a Vehicle Braking Guide. The guide assumes you are travelling in good weather conditions and on a dry sealed road. It is a guide only.

Speed(km/h)5080100
Reaction Distance (m)
(1.5 sec reaction time)		 21 33 42
Stopping Distance (m) 14 41 72
Total Distance Travelled (m) 35 74 114

Did you know:

  • Speed
    • contributes to about 30 percent of New Zealand's road deaths every year
    • was a factor in 15 percent of all injury crashes in 2002
    • is more likely to be a factor for for young drivers than for older drivers. In 2002 44 percent of fatal and 21 percent of injury crashes involving 15-19 year old drivers involved excessive speed on the part of the young driver.
    • surveys show that nearly 1 in 10 cars are exceeeding 110 Km/h on the open road.
  • Drinking and Driving
    • contributed to 95 fatal crashes, 384 serious injury crashes and 918 minor injury crashes
    • contributed to 109 deaths, 525 serious injuries and 1481 minor injuries.27% of all road deaths were im drink-related crashes
    • the social cost of drinking related crashes was about $600 million (about 20% of the social cost associated with all injury crashes.
    • over 80% of drivers with excess blood alcohol levels involved in fatal crashes were male.
    • drunk drivers were responsible for killing 32 of their own passengers, 14 other drivers,passengers, cyclists and pedestrians and 63 of these drunk drivers were themselves killed.
    • the combination of alcohol and speed during the period 2000 - 2002 contributed tp 13.7% of fatal crashes. Alcohol alone contributes to 12.7% and speed alone contributes to 14.7% of fatal crashes.So alcohol and and speed are factors in 41% of fatal crashes.
    • over 2 million people were breath tested by police.