A new campaign with the objective of raising awareness among drivers of the existence of essential practices to preserve their own safety and the safety of passengers in the event of mechanical breakdowns or road accidents in the motorway. The first weekend of July is just around the corner and it receives the weekend travel on the 235 km of motorway granted to A4 Holding, a company of the Spanish Abertis Group that manages the A4 Brescia Padova and A31 Valdastico motorway networks.

The summer period has always been the time of year when there is a significant increase in mechanical breakdowns of vehicles in transit on our routes: out of a total of 15,127 mechanical assistance interventions carried out by the Auxiliaries of the Viability of the concessionaire Autostrada Brescia Verona Vicenza Padova in 2019, 42% (i.e. 6,368) happened between June and September.

So here is a vademecum with 5 very important rules to be respected in order to avoid the consequences of an accident, a puncture or a mechanical disruption that forces the driver to leave the car parked and get off the vehicle along the highway. Unfortunately, rules, precautions and recommendations are very often underestimated, and the failure to respect them leads to sudden behaviors of motorists in emergency situations, most often due to the lack of perception of the real dangers existing along the roadway. In order to encourage safe and responsible driving, A4 Holding will repeatedly disseminate specific messages through the 43 information panels located along the route and will distribute to the rescued travelers a specific "safety kit" already this weekend in both A4 and A31, directly by the hands of the Auxiliaries of the Viability, the 60 experts in emergency interventions who, with their 16 emergency vehicles, supervise the A4 Holding motorway sections.

The kit contains the high visibility reflective vest, a backpack, a flashlight that needs to be placed on the top of the vehicle as a measure to increase visibility, a small gadget for children on board, in addition to the very important handbook with the 5 basic rules:

• Exit the vehicle only on the opposite side of vehicular traffic;
• Put on a high-visibility vest: both driver and passengers;
• Put the advance warning triangle at least 100 meters behind the vehicle, unless traffic conditions mean you can’t;
• Always stop on the hard shoulder whenever possible, off the traffic lane with sidelights and hazard warning lights on;
• Wait in a protected area behind the safety barrier (or higher up on the embankment if there isn’t any barrier) as far as possible from the traffic.

All this to reduce, as far as possible, further accidents and inconveniences and to encourage safe and responsible driving, also reminding motorists that, for all the stops that must be made and not of absolute urgency, the A4 Holding motorway sections have 14 service areas, 6 parking areas (on average every 30/40 km) and 259 multilingual SOS columns, arranged every 2 km.

To report any type of emergency, those traveling on A4 and A31 can contact the Operations Center of Viability 24 hours a day at the telephone number +39 045 8672200/045 8672201.