Alertness

What Does the Highway Code Say About Alertness?

Alertness is the state of being ready to notice and react to what is happening around you. The Highway Code treats it as a basic condition of safe driving: rule 148 says that safe driving and riding needs concentration, and much of the surrounding guidance is about protecting that concentration from things that compete for it.

In practice this means two habits working together. The first is looking early and looking often — scanning well ahead, checking mirrors before you change speed or direction, and checking blind spots before you move off. The second is removing whatever stops you from doing the first, whether that is tiredness, a conversation, or a screen.

It is worth knowing which parts of this are law and which are advice. The rules about controlling your vehicle and about hand-held devices use 'MUST' and 'MUST NOT' — they are legal requirements. The guidance on breaks, journey timing and avoiding distractions is strong advice rather than law, but the theory test still expects you to know it.

Tiredness and Safe Breaks

Driving while tired significantly increases your risk of collision, so rule 91 asks you to plan the journey rather than push through it. Do not begin a long drive already tired, and make sure you have had enough sleep beforehand.

Timing matters as much as sleep. The Highway Code advises avoiding long journeys between midnight and 6am, because this is when natural alertness is at its lowest. If your journey has to run through those hours, plan generous stops in advance.

• •A minimum break of at least 15 minutes after every two hours of driving is recommended — this is advice, not a legal limit for ordinary car drivers.
• •If you start to feel sleepy, stop in a safe place. Do not try to finish the journey on willpower.
• •The hard shoulder and emergency areas of a motorway are not rest areas — leave at the next exit or use a service area instead.

Common Driving Distractions

Rule 148 names the everyday things that pull attention away from the road. None of them feel dangerous on their own, which is exactly why they are easy to underestimate.

• •Loud music, which can mask sounds you need to hear such as sirens or a horn.
• •Trying to read maps while moving.
• •Adjusting music or the radio.
• •Arguing with passengers or with other road users.
• •Eating and drinking.
• •Smoking.

Most of these are easier to handle before you set off than during the drive. Choose your route and your music while parked, agree with passengers that difficult conversations can wait, and eat before you leave rather than at the wheel. If something genuinely needs your attention, find a safe place to stop.

Mobile Phones and In-Vehicle Technology

Rule 149 is a legal requirement, not advice. You MUST exercise proper control of your vehicle at all times, and you MUST NOT use a hand-held mobile phone — or a similar device capable of interactive communication, such as a tablet — for any purpose while driving or while supervising a learner driver.

This restriction does not pause when the vehicle stops moving. It still applies while you are held up in traffic. There are two narrow exceptions: calling 999 or 112 in a genuine emergency when it is unsafe or impractical to stop, and making a contactless payment while the vehicle is stationary, where goods or services are delivered at the same time or afterwards.

Using a hands-free set-up does not remove the risk, because the distraction is mental as well as physical. The Highway Code's advice is that it is far safer to stop in a safe place before making or taking a call. Separately, the Code recognises parking with a legitimate hand-held remote-control application or device — that is a specific, lawful use of a device rather than another exception to the calling rules, and you must still not endanger anyone while doing it.

Rule 150 covers everything else on the dashboard. Satnavs, congestion warning systems and multimedia can all distract you, and driver assistance systems are there to help rather than to let you concentrate less. Even when such a system is switched on, you remain responsible for the vehicle and must keep full control of both it and the system. If you need to look at a map or a screen, stop somewhere safe first.

Alertness Tips for Your Theory Test

The multiple-choice part of the car theory test has 50 questions and you are given 57 minutes to answer them. Alertness questions tend to appear as short scenarios rather than as definitions, so the useful revision is being able to say what you would do and why.

• •Be ready to separate legal requirements from advice — hand-held device use is prohibited, while break timings are recommended.
• •Expect the exceptions to be tested precisely: emergency 999 or 112 calls, and contactless payment while stationary.
• •Remember that the hand-held restriction still applies when you are stopped in traffic.
• •Know why the hard shoulder is not a rest area, not just that it is not one.
• •You can flag a question and come back to review it later, so do not lose time on one scenario.

If a question describes a driver who is tired, distracted, or reaching for a device, the safest lawful action is almost always the answer: reduce the distraction, or stop somewhere safe before dealing with it.

Official sources

• Highway Code Rules 89–102: fitness to drive
• Highway Code Rules 103–158: distractions and mobile phones
• Car theory test: multiple-choice questions