Examkin

Question

Difficulty: MediumMotorway and High-Speed Road Emergencies

Smoke begins pouring from beneath your bonnet while you are driving along a busy motorway. You manage to steer onto the hard shoulder and switch on your hazard warning lights. What is the safest action for you and your passengers to take next?

  1. A
    Walk back along the hard shoulder to place a warning triangle 45 metres behind your vehicle.
  2. Evacuate all occupants through the left-hand doors, leave any domestic animals inside, and move well clear behind the safety barrier.Answer
  3. C
    Lift the bonnet immediately to investigate the smoke source and try to smother any flames with a coat.
  4. D
    Keep all passengers seated inside the vehicle with doors and windows closed until breakdown assistance arrives.

Answer

Evacuate all occupants through the left-hand passenger doors, leave domestic pets inside the vehicle, and wait behind the safety barrier up the embankment.
Under Highway Code Rules 274 and 278, when stopping on a hard shoulder in an emergency, drivers must ensure all passengers exit via the left-hand doors (away from traffic), leave animals inside the car or under close control on the verge, and move up the embankment behind the safety barrier well clear of the road and vehicle.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Assess the immediate environment and prepare to evacuate
Identify that the vehicle cannot be safely repaired or remained in due to fire and high-speed collision risk.
Disabled vehicles on the hard shoulder or roadside are vulnerable to rear-end impacts and vehicle fires can escalate rapidly.
2
Evacuate occupants via the safest exit points
All passengers exit using the left-side doors facing away from live traffic lanes.
Exiting through right-side doors exposes passengers directly to fast-moving motorway traffic.
3
Manage domestic animals and locate safe refuge
Leave pets secured inside the vehicle and move all occupants up the embankment behind the safety barrier.
Animals may bolt into live traffic if released, creating severe multi-vehicle collisions. The area behind the safety barrier offers maximum physical protection.

Key Concept

Motorway evacuation and breakdown safety protocols under Highway Code Rules 274 and 278
Rate this question

Topics

Motorway and High-Speed Road Emergencies

More questions from this topic