You are driving a combination of vehicles whose length is 10 metres, and carrying a load which protrudes from the back of the trailer at 0.5 metres. Are you allowed to drive onto the road beyond this sign?

In the photo there is a junction in a town; on the right there is a round sign with a red border, the outline of a lorry and the text "10 m" - B-17 "no entry for vehicles longer than 10 m". Your vehicle combination is 10 m long and the load sticks out 0.5 m at the back, so you are not allowed to drive onto the road beyond this sign. The answer is: no.

The Regulation on road signs and signals states that sign B-17 "no entry for vehicles longer than ...... m" prohibits the movement of vehicles or vehicle combinations whose length, including the load, is greater than the value shown on the sign. So what counts is not the length in the vehicle registration certificate, but the real length of everything that is moving: 10 m of the combination plus 0.5 m of the load sticking out gives 10.5 m, and that is more than 10 m. The sign is placed before tight junctions, narrow streets and sharp bends where a long combination would not fit into the curve or would block traffic. A load sticking out at the back by more than 0.5 m would also have to be marked; when carrying loads, you remember that a long combination needs a wider curve and a longer stretch of road to overtake.

Legal basis: § 20 para. 3 of the Regulation on road signs and signals