In case of congestion, all vehicles on motorways and dual carriageways have to form the emergency corridor. The emergency corridor is an empty channel between the two lanes of a motorway or dual carriageway, which must be formed in case of congestion so as to allow emergency vehicles to progress speedily.
The usage of the emergency corridor is reserved for vehicles from the police, fire service, ambulance service, road patrol and breakdown services. This allows emergency vehicles to arrive at the site of an accident up to four minutes earlier than they would be able to by using the breakdown lane, which is non-existent or impassable in some cases. Thus, the chances of survival for accident victims can be increased by 40 per cent.
The system of the emergency corridor is also in use in Austria's neighbouring countries such as Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Switzerland. It has become law in Austria as of 1st January 2012.
Read more on ECC Austria's website.
