Night Motorway Breakdown With a Load of Pallets
At 02:30 on a dark, dry motorway you notice a vibration and a burning smell from the rear of your 18-tonne box lorry. You are in the right-hand lane with a hard shoulder about 3 m wide. The load is 12 tonnes of stacked pallets of bottled water, secured with straps. There is light traffic. You slow and stop on the hard shoulder, about 40 m past a slip road merge. Your hazard lights work; you have a warning triangle, a high-visibility vest and a torch. The nearest emergency telephone is about 250 m behind you.
1. Describe the sequence of actions from noticing the problem to being safely stopped and protected.
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- Recognise and plan. Vibration plus a burning smell suggests a wheel bearing, brake drag or a tyre problem. Reduce speed gently, keep steering input smooth, and look for the safest place to stop - a hard shoulder is acceptable, but an emergency refuge area or exit is better.
- Signal and move right gradually, hazards on, and stop as far onto the hard shoulder as possible with wheels straight so the lorry can be driven away if needed.
- Put on the high-visibility vest before opening the door. Exit on the passenger side if that keeps you away from traffic, and never stand between the lorry and the carriageway.
- Take the torch and triangle, and walk behind the barrier or as far from the traffic as possible.
- Place the warning triangle at a distance behind the vehicle appropriate to the road - on a motorway this is substantially further back than on a normal road, and it must be visible to approaching traffic. Do not walk in the live lane to place it.
- Use the emergency telephone rather than a mobile if possible, because it identifies your location automatically. Give the direction of travel, the nearest marker post, and the nature of the problem.
- Wait in a safe place - behind the barrier, not in the cab - until assistance arrives.
2. The driver decides to inspect the rear axle. What are the hazards and how should the inspection be done?
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Hazards: passing traffic at motorway speed only a few metres away; being struck while crouching; burns from a hot brake drum or hub; the lorry moving or dropping if a jack is used; and the load shifting if the trailer is disturbed.
Safe approach: keep the high-visibility vest on, stay on the side away from the carriageway where possible, and never kneel or lie in the road. Use the torch to look for smoke, a glowing drum, a deflated tyre or leaking grease around the hub - do not touch a hot component; hold a hand near it to feel radiant heat. Do not attempt to change a wheel on the hard shoulder of a motorway; that is a recovery job. If the wheel or hub is too hot to approach, move further away and wait for the emergency services. Record what you see, because it will support the defect report and any insurance claim.
3. What must happen before the lorry moves again, and what are the load-related checks?
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The lorry must not move until the cause is identified and either repaired by a competent person or the vehicle is recovered. A burning smell from a hub can indicate a bearing about to fail; driving on can lead to wheel loss or fire. If recovery is needed, the operator must be informed and the tachograph mode set correctly for the waiting period - availability or break, depending on whether the driver is free.
Load checks before moving: the straps must still be tensioned and undamaged; the pallets must not have shifted, because a sudden stop can cause a stack to lean and a strap to slacken; the rear doors must be secure; and the load must still be within axle limits. If a strap has been damaged or the load has moved, it must be re-secured before departure, and the incident recorded on the defect report.