Police are extending their tough ticketing campaign this year to cover kindergartens, play centres, pre-schools and Kohanga Reo facilities.

This is intended to make roads near schools safe for children.

A police speed camera.

Drivers travelling at more than 54km/h within 250 metres of a school boundary will be issued with a speeding ticket – unless there are exceptional reasons not to do so.

Drivers travelling over 50km/h and below 54km/h will be stopped and warned.

The time periods for school zone speed reductions are also extended until the end of February with speeders liable to be ticketed between 7.30am and 6pm on school days.

Nationally, since 2002, police say more than 900 child pedestrians have been struck by motor vehicles during school terms.

The most vulnerable age group is 11-15 years, with this group making up 44 per cent of child casualties aged 5-18 years.

Police say at 50 km/h, it takes 41 metres for a driver to stop a car; this is by the time they react to an unexpected event and brake.

This is based on a motorist driving at 50km/h travelling nearly 20 metres while they’re reacting and moving a foot to the brake pedal.

If a child was 20m from the car, the vehicle would still be travelling at close to 50km/h when the child was struck.

A healthy adult struck at 50km/h has about a 40 per cent chance of being killed – for a child, the odds are much worse.

A child struck by a vehicle travelling at 60km/h has only a 15 per cent chance of survival. When the impact speed is reduced to 50km/h, survival odds increase to 55 per cent.