Roads and Traffic Authority, N S W text image
Speeding campaign
Home > NSW Centre for Road Safety > Speeding > Advertising campaigns > Speeding campaign
In This Section

Country speeding campaign

P plate speeding campaign

Speeding campaign


Related links:

Three Strikes scheme

Speeding research

Speeding advertising campaign

In NSW speeding is a factor in about 40 per cent of road deaths each year. This means more than 220 people die each year in NSW because of speeding.

In addition to those killed, more than 4000 people are injured in speed-related crashes each year. The estimated cost to the community of speed-related crashes is about $500 million a year

An attitude problem

One of the disturbing problems with speeding is that while most people accept that speeding increases crash risk, most people continue to speed. While drink driving is generally viewed as socially unacceptable, speeding is not.

Research has shown that people make false distinctions about categories of speeding.

Many people define speeding  by 5-10 km/h as merely 'driving over the limit' and even view speeding by 10-20 km/h as 'acceptable speeding'. Many people consider 'real speeding' to be only speeding by more than 20 km/h.

These are dangerous attitudes because there is no such thing as safe speeding.

The risk of a crash in a 60 km/h speed zone causing death or injury increases rapidly even with relatively small increases of speed. The crash risk at 65 km/h is about twice the risk at 60 km/h. At 70km/h the crash risk is more than four times the risk at 60 km/h.

Underestimating stopping distance

A key issue in speeding related crashes is the fact that most motorists underestimate the distance needed to stop.

This speeding campaign delivers a straight forward message about the actual difference in stopping distances for a vehicle travelling at 60km/h compared to one travelling at 65 km/h.

The television advertisement features two cars travelling side-by-side, one at 60 km/h and the other at 65 km/h, and clearly shows the difference in outcomes when a truck unexpectedly looms across the road ahead.

The slower vehicle is still travelling at 5 km/h when it hits the truck, but the other car is travelling at 32 km/h on impact and is extensively damaged.

Even when braking hard, starting from five kilometres over the speed limit makes 27 km/h difference on impact. The advertisement illustrates dramatically that the speed limit is set at the maximum speed at which bad crashes may be avoided when the unexpected happens.

Campaign background

The campaign uses a television commercial developed by the Transport Accidents Commission of Victoria (TAC). The commercial is in line with the RTA’s strategy of relating speed to stopping distances and crash impacts as a means of influencing driver behaviour.

Back to top

Advertising campaigns speeding