If you are driving an overnormative vehicle with the width exceeding 3,2 m, are you obliged to be piloted by assisting pilot vehicles?

In the photo, a blue tractor unit is carrying a wide stack of red steel structures on a semi-trailer, sticking out beyond its outline. An abnormal (oversize or overweight) vehicle more than 3.2 m wide must be escorted - answer A.

The Regulation on the escorting of abnormal vehicles requires escorting when the journey exceeds at least one of these values: length 23 m, width 3.2 m, height 4.5 m or actual total mass 60 tonnes. Above a width of 3.6 m there must be two escort vehicles. The 3.2 m limit is not random: an ordinary vehicle with a load may not be wider than 2.55 m, and a typical lane is about 3.5 m wide, so a combination wider than 3.2 m takes up the whole lane and forces others to move to the edge or stop. The escort's job is to warn drivers and, if necessary, to stop traffic for the duration of the journey. Answer C adds a restriction to night-time hours that the regulations do not contain.

Legal basis: § 2 para. 1 and 2 of the Regulation of the Minister of Infrastructure of 8 November 2023 on escorting abnormal vehicles; Art. 61 para. 6 point 1 and Art. 64 para. 1 point 3 of the Road Traffic Act (Prawo o ruchu drogowym)