WIDE LOADS

Ask Phoebe: Pilot vehicle allows 10 second warning

By Phoebe Falconer New Zealand Herald

5:30 AM Tuesday Jun 26, 2012

The pilot vehicle should allow traffic travelling in the opposite direction five to 10 seconds notice of the wide load. Photo / Thinkstock

Last month, my friend and I were driving down New North Rd near Pak'n Save (New Zealand supermarket chain) late at night. We encountered a house being moved on the back of a trailer reasonably fast which almost took up the entire four lanes. A pilot vehicle with a "large load follows" sign hardly gave us enough warning and we had to drive on to the footpath to escape. Is this legal?

- Lydia Jarman, Mt Albert, Auckland, New Zealand

The Transport Agency's load pilot driver code says that the pilot vehicle should allow traffic travelling in the opposite direction five to 10 seconds' notice of the wide load. Any longer than this and approaching drivers may think there is no hazard or forget about it. Approaching drivers need to be able to see the pilot vehicle from a distance of at least three times the speed limit, or three times the limit on that section of road, in meters.

Highway America

Peter’s Comment

There is a major, largely unrecognized, problem with driving laws that use time and distance measurements; many drivers have no comprehension of time and distance. Ten seconds or fifty meters means absolutely nothing to them.

I have noticed a wide variation in the warning distance and time for wide-load warning vehicles and also for signs warning of road works ahead.

This lack of comprehension must also extend to the bureaucrats who decided that the warning time for wide loads should be 5-10 seconds. Allowing for reaction time, many drivers traveling at the speed limit will be underneath the wide load before five seconds is up.

Estimating time and distance should be a standard part of driver training and testing.