A lorry driver who stopped in a live lane leading to a motorway for a rest has been fined by police. North West Motorway Police revealed details of the driver's potentially dangerous decision on Twitter - and shared an image of the HGV.
The lorry was shown parked up on a live lane of a slip road leading onto the busy M56 motorway in Cheshire, reports Cheshire Live. The driver, police said, had pulled over the take a legally-binding 'tacho break'.
A 'tacho break' is an enforced rest that HGV drivers must take, recorded by the vehicle's tachograph. After 4.5 hours of driving, HGV drivers are legally mandated to take a break of at least 45 minutes.
Police spotted the HGV in the early hours of Wednesday morning leading onto a westbound stretch of the motorway, but no exact location has been revealed. In a tweet, North West Motorway Police said: "Our ME58 came across this HGV on access slip road of M56 stopped in live lane to take a tacho break - ticket issued."
In response, one Twitter user said it was 'clearly stupid' and the driver 'deserved a ticket', but hit out at a lack of rest areas and truck stops for HGV drivers and other. "We rely on trucks for a massive amount of our day to day goods, yet provide so little for them to actually abide by the law on driving hours," they said.
![](https://i2-prod.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/incoming/article23545324.ece/ALTERNATES/s810/0_Emergency-services-at-the-scene-of-a-cordon-on-the-exit-slip-of-the-M56-westbound-at-junction-12-for.jpg)
Another called the driver's actions 'unbelievable' and a third claimed services were 'just down the road'.
A driver choosing to stop on Cheshire's motorways is not an unprecedented occurrence. Earlier this month, a driver 'needlessly' put his life at risk by stopping his car on the M6 to adjust his wing mirror and in February, a driver stopped on 'tiger-tails' separating a junction from the M56 motorway in order to check their phone for directions.
In May last year, a woman stopped on lane one of the M6 near Middlewich 'to do her make-up', and later tested positive for cocaine. She was also found to have been driving with a provisional licence and no insurance. No further details of the latest incident have been released by police.