Speeding
Speeding
Speeding
Get the facts
Driving too fast is the single biggest contributor to death and injury on NSW roads. Each year, speeding contributes to about 41% of road fatalities and 24% of serious injuries. Almost 135 lives are lost and 1141 people are seriously injured.
Your speed decides the outcome
Speeding is never safe. Speed increases the risk of having a crash, as well as the severity of the crash.
Road users caught driving too fast will also face speeding penalties.
The faster you go the more:
- time you need to react and avoid a crash
- stopping distance is needed
- severe the impact of a crash
- chance of death or serious injury.
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Stopping distances
The faster you go, the longer it takes to stop. A typical stopping distance when travelling at 30km/h on a reasonable road surface is 19 metres. At 40km/h, the stopping distance increases to 27 metres.
Even a small difference in your speed can greatly affect the likelihood of death or serious injury.
If you’re driving at 50km/h, it will take you about 37 metres to stop. At 60km/h, that distance jumps to 56 metres.
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If a car hits a pedestrian at 50km/h
The impact is twice as likely to cause death than if the car had been travelling at 40km/h.
Other factors that affect stopping distances include:
- distraction, fatigue or dim lighting, as drivers take longer to react
- wet roads or worn tyres, which can lengthen braking distances.
- poorly maintained brakes.
To reduce the risk of a crash, you should stay under the speed limit and drive to the conditions. Slow down in wet weather or when road conditions or visibility are poor.
Speeding and fatalities
- In a crash between a car and a pedestrian, there's a 90% chance a pedestrian will survive if the car was travelling at 30km/h. There's a 60% chance if the car was travelling at 40km/h, and a 10% chance at 50km/h.
- In a side-impact crash with another vehicle, there's a 90% chance that a driver or passenger will survive at 50km/h. There's a 60% chance at 60km/h, and a 20% chance at 70km/h.
- In a head-on crash between two vehicles, there's a 95% chance that a driver or passenger will survive at 60km/h. There's a 90% chance at 70km/h, and a 20% chance at 90km/h.
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More information
Speeding penalties
Find out more about the penalties for speeding on the NSW Government website.
