{"id":2775,"date":"2018-11-12T05:00:11","date_gmt":"2018-11-11T18:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.driverknowledgetests.com\/resources\/?p=2775"},"modified":"2024-03-16T08:19:27","modified_gmt":"2024-03-15T21:19:27","slug":"heavy-vehicle-following-distances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.driverknowledgetests.com\/resources\/heavy-vehicle-following-distances\/","title":{"rendered":"Heavy vehicle following distances"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There are some legal minimum following distances for heavy vehicles as well as some recommended minimum following distances. The following distance contributes to the crash avoidance space that gives a driver plenty of time to stop or take other action should something happen ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Response time is the time taken to take action and it is usually between two and three seconds. That means that from when the incident unfolds ahead of you to&nbsp;when you actually hit the brake can be up to three seconds. In a heavy vehicle, braking is often the only option as swerving can cause rollovers with a worse outcome. Drivers should do <a href=\"https:\/\/www.drivingtests.co.nz\/course\/rollover-prevention\/\">rollover prevention training<\/a> to understand the risks related to evasive manouevres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is why the minimum following distance when following a car or motorbike is four seconds. To calculate this, pick a point that the vehicle in front has just passed and count&nbsp;one<br>thousand and one, one thousand and two, one thousand and three, one&nbsp;thousand and four\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Legal minimum following distances<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A road train following a long vehicle (a vehicle 7.5m or longer) must maintain a <strong>minimum following distance of 200m<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A regular long vehicle travelling behind another long vehicle must travel a <strong>minimum of 60m behind<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, these distances do not apply on multilane roads, in built-up areas or when overtaking, and local laws can override them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As 200m is difficult to judge, drivers can count seconds at a particular speed. At 70km\/h, the distance travelled per second is 19.44. Drivers can count 10 seconds at 70km\/h and approximately judge the 200m distance. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are some legal minimum following distances for heavy vehicles as well as some recommended minimum following distances. The following distance contributes to the crash avoidance space that gives a driver plenty of time to stop or take other action<span class=\"ellipsis\">&hellip;<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.driverknowledgetests.com\/resources\/heavy-vehicle-following-distances\/\">Read more &#8250;<\/a><\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2010,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advice"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Heavy vehicle following distances - Driver Knowledge Test (DKT) Resources<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.driverknowledgetests.com\/resources\/heavy-vehicle-following-distances\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Heavy vehicle following distances - Driver Knowledge Test (DKT) Resources\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There are some legal minimum following distances for heavy vehicles as well as some recommended minimum following distances. The following distance contributes to the crash avoidance space that gives a driver plenty of time to stop or take other action&hellip;Read more &#8250;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.driverknowledgetests.com\/resources\/heavy-vehicle-following-distances\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Driver Knowledge Test (DKT) Resources\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-11-11T18:00:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-03-15T21:19:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.driverknowledgetests.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/road-train-sign.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"651\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Darren Cottingham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Darren Cottingham\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.driverknowledgetests.com\\\/resources\\\/heavy-vehicle-following-distances\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.driverknowledgetests.com\\\/resources\\\/heavy-vehicle-following-distances\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Darren Cottingham\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.driverknowledgetests.com\\\/resources\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9ef16d1448c325b8672efd954b0d10cd\"},\"headline\":\"Heavy vehicle following distances\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-11-11T18:00:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-03-15T21:19:27+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.driverknowledgetests.com\\\/resources\\\/heavy-vehicle-following-distances\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":270,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.driverknowledgetests.com\\\/resources\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.driverknowledgetests.com\\\/resources\\\/heavy-vehicle-following-distances\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.driverknowledgetests.com\\\/resources\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/04\\\/road-train-sign.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Advice\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.driverknowledgetests.com\\\/resources\\\/heavy-vehicle-following-distances\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.driverknowledgetests.com\\\/resources\\\/heavy-vehicle-following-distances\\\/\",\"name\":\"Heavy vehicle following distances - 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