What factors impact your stopping distance?
(A) Your driving behaviour - Attention, Fatigue, Impairment (alcohol or drugs), Driver age and experience, Hazard perception ability
(B) Your vehicle - Vehicle age, type and condition of brakes, tyres, tyre pressure, safety features (ABS,ESC, etc), vehicle weight, towing
(C) The environment - Road surface, road gradient, road alignment, weather conditions
(D) ALL OF THE ABOVE?
The answer is (D) all of these factors influence how quickly you can stop your vehicle. Below we look at the impact of WET ROADS and SPEED on your stopping distance.
Wet Weather
With the wet weather at the moment it is a timely reminder to ensure that you are driving to the conditions, keeping the appropriate following distance and recognising the impact of wet roads on your stopping distance. At 60 km/hr your stopping distance increases by 9m in the wet (that is 20%).
So remember, if the roads are wet, slow down, increase your following distance and ensure you are driving to the conditions.
As a learner, a great way to visualise the stopping distance at 60 km/hr is to measure out 54m (or 54 large steps) from the front of your parked car. That is how long your car takes to stop in a wet weather emergency!
The following content is sourced from QLD Transport and can be found here.
Here is a video showing the impact of speeding on stopping distance.
Safe driving from all the team.