Worn markings, a slow truck and an oncoming set of headlights
At 8:45 pm you are driving a loaded pickup south along the Soesdyke–Linden highway. The surface is still wet after rain and you are on dipped headlights. About 60 m ahead a sand truck is crawling at roughly 25 km/h; its rear marker lamps are caked in mud and only one faint red lamp shows. The centre line is broken white, but over the last 200 m it has worn almost away. A 'No Overtaking' sign stands 120 m ahead, where a solid white line begins on the approach to a single-lane bridge. A car behind you has been sitting close to your bumper for the last two kilometres. An oncoming vehicle with bright headlights is visible in the distance and you cannot yet judge its speed.
1. What does each element - the broken line, the worn section and the 'No Overtaking' sign - tell you about whether you may pass the truck here?
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Broken white centre line: you may cross it to overtake, but only if you can see the road is clear far enough ahead. It is permission, not instruction.
Worn section: the marking has not disappeared as a rule, only as paint. Where you genuinely cannot read the line, you fall back on the default rule - keep left and only pass when you can see clear road - and you treat the approach to any narrowing or bridge as a no-go area.
'No Overtaking' sign plus solid line at the bridge: this is an outright prohibition for that stretch. The sign warns you before the line starts precisely because you must not begin a pass that would carry you into the restricted zone.
Put together: the only legal overtaking space is the short broken-line section you are in now, and it ends in a bridge approach. With a truck at 25 km/h and an unread oncoming vehicle, that space is almost certainly too short - so the correct answer is to stay behind.
2. You cannot tell how fast the oncoming vehicle is closing. Explain how you would judge the gap and whether it is enough, showing the arithmetic you would use.
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Judge closing speed, not distance. A headlight pair that stays the same brightness for several seconds is far away or slow; one that grows and separates quickly is closing fast. Roadside objects (reflector posts, the bridge railing) give you a second reference.
Do the sums roughly. Suppose you would pass at about 55 km/h and the oncoming car is doing about 60 km/h. You are closing on each other at roughly 115 km/h, about 32 m every second. If the car is 200 m away, you have about six seconds before you meet it.
Compare with what the pass costs. To pass a 15 m truck with a 30 km/h speed difference takes around eight to ten seconds, plus the length of road you need to pull out and return - roughly 90–120 m of clear road, with a margin on top.
Six seconds of oncoming gap against a ten-second manoeuvre plus a bridge is a clear no. Stay behind, keep your dipped beam on, and wait for a straight section after the bridge.
3. The truck continues slowly and the car behind stays glued to your bumper. What is the safe way to manage the pressure without breaking the overtaking rule?
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Do not let the follower buy your risk. A tailgater behind you is not exposed to the oncoming traffic; you are. Their impatience is not a reason to start a pass the road does not allow.
Manage the gap ahead instead. Drop back slightly from the truck so you have braking room and can see past it - a better view is what actually creates a safe opportunity later.
Make yourself predictable. Keep a steady speed, signal early and clearly when a genuine opportunity comes, and brake gently rather than sharply so the follower is not surprised.
If the pressure persists, use a safe, legal place to pull off the carriageway and let the car go by - never the bridge, never on a blind bend, and never by stopping in the lane. Then rejoin and continue at your own pace. A driver who cannot be overtaken safely is not obliged to be overtaken at all.