Power loss in a motorway tunnel
You are driving a diesel estate through a 4.2 km, two-bore Swiss motorway tunnel. You are in the right-hand lane at 80 km/h in a moving queue. Without warning the engine loses power and a burning-plastic smell comes through the vents. You roll to a stop about 40 m before an emergency niche containing a telephone. There is no hard shoulder. Behind you traffic is still arriving at 80 km/h. Your passenger is on the phone to a friend, and two children aged 6 and 9 are in the back. The hazard lights come on automatically. In the boot there is a warning triangle, one high-visibility vest for the driver only, and a 1 kg powder extinguisher under the passenger seat.
1. Set out the first sixty seconds, in order, and justify each step.
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1. Stop as far right as possible, wheels straight. Hazard lights are already on. Stopping close to the tunnel wall instead of in the lane roughly halves the chance that the next vehicle hits you; straight wheels mean a rear impact pushes the car along the wall rather than into the lane.
2. Engine off, key out, handbrake on. The smell suggests an electrical or overheating fault; cutting the ignition removes the energy source and lets the smoke stop. Do not switch off and then keep cranking the starter to 'see if it catches'.
3. Vest before the door opens. Put the vest on inside the car, then open the door on the side away from traffic - the passenger side on the right-hand lane - and get everyone out that way.
4. Take the children out on the same side and move to the wall and the niche. Do not leave them standing at the boot. Body position: behind the tunnel wall/handrail, facing traffic.
5. Call from the emergency phone, not from the mobile. The niche phone identifies the tunnel, the direction and the exact location automatically, and puts you through to the tunnel operator who can set the signals and lane closures. A mobile call to a friend does none of that. State what the car is doing and whether there is smoke.
6. Do not walk back up the lane to set the triangle. Turning your back on traffic at 80 km/h to place it 50–100 m behind is the most dangerous action available; hazard lights plus the operator's signals do the warning job.
2. There is now thin smoke from under the bonnet. Do you use the extinguisher? What are the rules for the escape route?
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First: keep the bonnet closed. A fully open bonnet feeds oxygen to a fire and can throw flame back at you. If the bonnet has a release gap, a short burst through the gap is the maximum. A 1 kg powder extinguisher is a few seconds of discharge - it is for a small, localised fire with a clear escape route behind you, not for a fire that has already taken hold.
Decision rule. If the smoke stops and stays thin after the engine is off, keep the extinguisher ready and stay near the niche. If smoke increases, or you see flame, or you cannot stay on the safe side of the wall: do not fight it. Move people away, close the car doors if you can do it in seconds, and go.
Escape route. Follow the green escape signage - running person, exit arrow, distance in metres to the nearest exit - set into the lower tunnel wall. Walk, do not run, keep to the walkway behind the handrail, and keep the children in front of you where you can see them. In smoke, stay low, use the handrail as a guide and cover mouths with cloth. Emergency lighting and fresh-air supply in the safe rooms are designed for exactly this situation, and the distance to the next exit is marked every few metres.
3. What do you say to your passenger and how do you manage the two children during the wait?
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Stop the phone call, not the calm. Your passenger is on the phone to a friend, which is useless to the tunnel operator and distracting at the moment you need a second pair of eyes. Give her a task: 'Hang up, take the 9-year-old's hand, stand on the walkway side of me and watch the traffic while I make the emergency call.' Clear instructions beat reassurance because they give her something to do.
With the children. Get down to their eye level and use short, concrete sentences: 'We are in the tunnel, the car is broken, we are standing behind the rail, and we are waiting for the tunnel people.' Explain what the green signs mean before you need them, so that an evacuation is a plan and not a surprise. Tell them they must stay behind the handrail and hold hands - and model it yourself.
During the wait. Keep everyone on the walkway side, never between the car and the traffic, and never in the other bore. If the tunnel fills with smoke or the operator instructs an evacuation over the loudspeakers, you go immediately, children in front, along the wall to the nearest marked exit. Vehicles behind may also stop and people may get out: keep clear of the lane and do not let anyone open your bonnet to 'have a look'.