Road rules quiz sparks debate: Can you increase your speed when being overtaken?

A road rule question asking whether cars are allowed to speed up while being overtaken has confused frustrated drivers.

Queensland motoring club RACQ posted a quiz to its social media on Thursday to test drivers’ knowledge.

A graphic shows a blue car preparing to overtake a yellow vehicle on a two-way road, and the quiz asked whether it was legal for the yellow vehicle to increase its speed whilst being overtaken. 

A simple road rule question asking whether cars are allowed to speed up while being overtaken has left some Australians baffled

‘The blue vehicle is preparing to overtake the yellow vehicle. Is it illegal for the yellow vehicle to increase its speed whilst being overtaken?’ RACQ asked. 

Social media users flocked to the comments section to share their answers.

‘If you’re being overtaken you are clearly not going fast enough so yes speed up,’ one person suggested.

Another person disagreed and called the practice ‘very frustrating’.

‘I’d say yes [it is illegal]. It’s a common occurrence that some inconsiderate drivers speed up when there’s an overtaking lane on highways. So you have to do excessive speed to get past them,’ they said. 

According to Queensland law, it is illegal to speed up when a car is trying to overtake. 

‘If a driver is overtaking another driver on a two-way road … the other driver must not increase the speed,’ the Transport Operations Regulations 1999 (Queensland) has stated.

Violation of this law carries a maximum sentence of 20 penalty units, or $2669.    

The overtaking driver is also not allowed to go over the speed limit in Queensland, and the penalty for speeding is $1245 while the punishment for not overtaking safely is a $186 fine.