to stop in motorway SOS lay-by so DD could wee

[TheWrongBus]

Genuine question, curious if there is an official/legal answer.

Driving to West Country, inevitably stuck in bad traffic jams on M25, DD9 suggests she may need a wee at some point but we’re only about an hour away from our lunch stop so I tell her ideally we’ll push through.

What I didn’t realise is that she’d drunk half her (large) bottle of water before we left home. She admits this just as we’re joining the M3 where there are seemingly permanent roadworks, no hard shoulder and emergency SOS lay-byes only.

I check and we’re around 25 minutes from the next services and at least 15 minutes from the next junction. Daughter at this point starts to cry because she’s so desperate so we decide to pull into the SOS lay-bye and hubby takes her behind the crash barrier for a wee. From what he reports it’s clearly not the first time this spot has been used in this way….

I don’t like using the lay-bye for this purpose and appreciate there are dangers to stopping there but I’m not sure what else we could have done. With the M25 traffic and the M3 roadworks I think it was at least 50 minutes between the previous M25 junction and the next M3 junction and literally nowhere we could stop between. So what else could we have done?

Am hoping they don’t fine people for using these lay-byes in a non-emergency, but given daughter literally about to wet herself isn’t it arguably a medical emergency anyway?

The advice says you should call the emergency services so a lane can be closed so you can exit.

Given that the system is known to be faulty for thousands of hours per year, it may be better to use your own judgement and not wait for 'help' t o arrive which may never happen.

Have you read about the number of times (hours) that people watching the cameras or supposed to be monitoring traffic never actually do?

It's a complete disgrace.

From the AA website:

"How to rejoin the motorway safely
Emergency areas are only short lay-bys and they're not long enough to build up speed before re-joining the motorway.
Before leaving, you must contact the Regional Control Centre using the SOS phone. They’ll dispatch a National Highways Traffic Officer and/or set signs and signals (red 'X') to help you back onto the motorway safely. Do not attempt to leave until you have permission from the control centre or traffic officer."

From the National Highways website:

"Take care when you rejoin the motorway
Get back on the road safely from an emergency area. Do not exit an emergency area without speaking to National Highways first. We can close the lane to help you rejoin the motorway safely. We can also set signs and warn approaching traffic that you're about to exit an emergency area."

See my xd post.

Id rather use my own judgement than wait to find out no one is actually monitoring the situation.

The AA also has stats on how the system doesn't work for 1000s of hours per year.

You're a sitting duck while waiting for someone to notice you're there.

If it was standstill traffic that wasn't going anywhere for ages, maybe.

But I would have given her a tshirt or something to wee into.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/cy9e1pjyng8o?atlinkkorigin=BBCWalessNews&atbbccteam=editorial&atcampaign=SociallFlow&atptrrname=facebookpage&attlinkid=1754A5EC-67D6-11EF-94CA-BB2B7BB56CA1&attlinktype=webblink&atformat=link&attmedium=social&atcampaignntype=owned

Watch this and then ask yourself if you'd stop next time.

Drivers who do that need imprisoning and banned from driving for life.

Just shows the importance of not stopping for non emergencies and risks of doing so even in an emergency.

I know it was 40 years ago but a motorway cop stopped behind me on the hard shoulder, I explained the urgent nature of a 3 year old needing to pee and he said fine, but he was a dad of a three old himself

How do you not understand that it is better a wet 3 year old than a dead one

It's not whether you know the road it's whether the bloke who's just driven an artic 12 hours straight notices your car is somewhere unexpected

@OneTC or the twat of a lorry driver thinking that replying to a WhatsApp message is more important than watching the road, as in the video above.