Weight-restricted village road, delivery exception and police closure
At 09:20 you are driving a 26 t combination: a two-axle rigid lorry with permissible total mass 17.5 t towing a two-axle trailer. You need to deliver 8 t of animal feed to a farm 3 km ahead. The direct road has a circular sign with a red border, a black lorry symbol and '3,5 t'. Under it, a supplementary plate reads 'Gælder ikke for udbringning til ejendommene' (does not apply to deliveries to the properties). The farm entrance is 3.5 m wide; your combination is 16.5 m long. At the junction a police officer waves you down and says the direct road is closed to 'store køretøjer' because a culvert has collapsed. He tells you to take the motorway and approach from the other side. Your delivery window closes in 40 minutes.
1. What does the sign with the lorry symbol and '3,5 t' mean, and does the supplementary plate help you?
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The circular sign with a red border and a black lorry symbol is a prohibition for goods vehicles. The '3,5 t' figure means the prohibition applies to goods vehicles with a permissible maximum mass over 3.5 t. Your rigid lorry has a permissible total mass of 17.5 t, so the sign applies to you. The supplementary plate 'Gælder ikke for udbringning til ejendommene' creates an exception for deliveries to the properties on that road. If you are genuinely delivering to the farm and there is no other reasonable access, the exception can allow you to use the road despite the sign. But the exception is not a general permission to use the road as a through route, and it does not override a police instruction or a physical road closure. You should be able to show the delivery note if stopped.
2. The police officer says the road is closed. What is your legal and practical response?
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A police officer's direction overrides the normal signs. If the officer says the direct road is closed because a culvert has collapsed, I must not drive past the closure. I would stop, switch off the engine, and explain that my destination is the farm 3 km ahead and that the sign has a delivery exception. I would ask whether the farm can still be reached from this side, or whether I must use the motorway and approach from the other side. If the officer directs me to the motorway, I follow that route. I would then contact the farm to explain the delay and confirm the alternative approach. I would not argue that the delivery exception makes the closure irrelevant; the closure is about safety, not access rights. I would also check the alternative route for weight, height and length restrictions before committing.
3. What about the farm entrance and your 16.5 m combination?
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The farm entrance is only 3.5 m wide, and the combination is 16.5 m long. Even if the road access is legal, the physical layout may make the delivery unsafe or impossible. I would stop before the entrance, walk the last part, and check for overhead cables, gateposts, soft ground and turning space. A 16.5 m combination needs a large swept path; reversing into a narrow farm yard may be unsafe without a banksman. If access is not possible, I would contact the farmer and arrange to meet at a safe point, transship the 8 t onto a smaller vehicle, or use a different entrance. I would not force the combination through a gap that risks damage or injury. The 40-minute delivery window does not justify an unsafe manoeuvre; a failed delivery is better than an incident.