Highway Code

Safety car on the motorway, how it changes and what you risk if you don't slow down

A ministerial decree now makes it possible to enforce the new rules: mandatory 'four arrows' and the possibility of patrols, including private ones

of Regulations and Taxes

21 August 2025

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What is the meaning of the expression 'safety car' that you sometimes read on variable message signs along highways and major roads? Similarly to what you see on racetracks, it is a car that stands in front of passing vehicles to regulate their pace when there are particularly dangerous situations. Many people already know how it works, but now there are some new features, two of which are substantial: the obligation to keep your 'four arrows on' when following a safety car, and the possibility of this traffic regulation service being carried out by private individuals and not only by police forces.

This is provided for by a number of changes to the Highway Code introduced by the (partial) reform of last December (law 177/2024), which can only now become fully operational: the ministerial decree (Dm) with which the Ministry of Infrastructure in agreement with the Ministry of the Interior were to establish the procedures for implementing the new regulations and the characteristics of service vehicles that can be used by private individuals.

The Past

In order to better understand what is changing, it is good to remember what was going on until now. It all started about thirty years ago, after a few maximum traffic jams in foggy conditions on busy northern motorways. It was for this reason that the traffic police introduced an operational scheme in which a patrol marched at low speed in the middle of the carriageway with all its flashing lights on, to force all drivers of vehicles behind to maintain the same speed, without overtaking.

Over time, this scheme has been extended to other situations (always on motorways or at least on major arterial roads with separated carriageways). Starting with those of very intense traffic where one can only manage to avoid paralysis by forcing everyone to a low and constant speed. With the proliferation of construction sites due to the decay and obsolescence of the road network, the safety car has been deployed in some stretches where construction work takes so long and takes place in situations that are already normally dangerous (such as in tunnels): it was the last card to play (after signs and real or fake speed cameras) to prevent tragic accidents in which people who work in those construction sites are run over.

All this took place without the Highway Code being adapted. So up to now it has never been completely clear:

when it was permitted to deploy a safety car;
how drivers behind a safety car should behave;
what thepenalties were for those who behaved inappropriately in these situations.

Moreover, the deployment of safety cars often requires the availability of many patrols, while traffic police forces are chronically understaffed.

When there may be a safety car

The reform reorganised Article 43 of the Highway Code. Before, it was only the generic 'needs connected with the fluidity or safety of traffic' that authorised officers to order drivers to accelerate, slow down, stop, deviate or engage in other behaviour. Now the needs of 'protection of road workers' (construction personnel, maintenance workers, emergency workers, police) have been added.

All of this is provided for in subsection 5 and can be achieved by traditional methods, such as gestures or the use of red flags, paddles, reflective sticks, etc.

Then there is paragraph 5-bis, which allows the gradual slowing down and regulation of traffic flow by deploying the safety car. This applies only 'on roads with independent carriageways or separated by a central reservation' when it is necessary to prevent dangers due to the presence of people on the carriageway, the installation or removal of signs for building sites, accidents or other unforeseeable events. The operation is carried out not only by putting the safety car on the road, but also by keeping an eye on any junctions on the stretch at risk and implementing other particular measures provided for by the Ministerial Decree.

What to do when there is a safety car

In addition to the ban on overtaking the safety car, the new paragraph 3-bis of Article 177 imposes three obligations:

slow down gradually to match your speed to that of the safety car, so as to be ready to stop safely if required or necessary;
actuate the "four arrows";
comply with all other requirements imposed in the specific situation (e.g. variable message signs installed along the road or on the safety car).

Sanctions

For offenders, there is a fine of EUR 167 and suspension of driving licence from one to three months (three to six months for those who have held their licence for less than three years).

Private individuals

It will be necessary to be more careful than usual, because the slowdown can be ordered not only with a police vehicle, but also private. These are the vehicles that have already been used for years to carry out technical escorts of exceptional vehicles and transports, which are manned by privately licensed personnel.

The Dm regulates various aspects of the vehicle's equipment and features, which among other things will be recognisable by normal or variable message signs displaying the phrase 'safety car'.