Stop overtaking trucks. On D1 already with brands

Signs were placed in both directions on the D1 sections between the Humpolec and Jihlava-Pávov exits (km 90 to 112) and Velké Meziříčí-východ and Kývalka (km 146 to 182). Overtaking for trucks is prohibited from six in the morning until ten in the evening. Other sections should be marked after the New Year, as soon as the process passes through the administrative procedure of the departmental ministry.

“Especially the section through Větrný Jeníkov we wanted to make it in time for winter,” Jan Rýdl, spokesman for the Directorate of Roads and Highways (ŘSD) of the Czech Republic, reminded of the critical points here.

The local police also welcomes it, as confirmed by its spokeswoman Dana Čírtková. As she added, it would be optimal to expand the signs as soon as possible also in the connecting section between Jihlava and Velký Meziříč, which also includes the treacherous area near Řehořov.

“We also installed the traffic signs in order to strongly remind truck drivers of their obligation, which already follows from the law. It clearly states that a driver crossing from one lane to another must not only endanger other drivers, but also limit them,” emphasized the spokesperson of the ŘSD.

The novelty, he indicated, will not condemn truck drivers to a hopeless, endless pursuit of the slowest vehicle in the line. “On the D1 route between Prague and Brno, there are almost a fifth of the sections with uphill lanes, in which the overtaking ban does not apply,” he added.

In the next stage, signs prohibiting overtaking for trucks should appear in the already mentioned section between Jihlava and Velký Meziříč (km 112 to 141) and from Mirošovice to Humpolc (km 21 to 90).

The new measures, in which the police and highway maintenance participated, were particularly necessitated by repeated winter collapses. When a truck that failed to pull out stalled on hilly terrain and the following colossus ended up doing the same while overtaking it, it was the classic beginning of a multi-hour traffic stoppage. “Four trucks stand next to each other on the surface of the highway, inaccessible to technology. Our guys weave between them on foot with shovels in their frozen hands, and the drivers are waiting from warm cabs for us to solve it for them,” Rýdl described.

But as he reminded, the ban on overtaking trucks does not bring a solution only for the winter months. “The problem is mainly the time it takes for colossi to overtake each other, which takes several minutes, during which it is not possible to use the capacity of the highway. And we want to enable the smoothest possible traffic on the modernized highway,” described Rýdl.