Built on steep, sustained highway downgrades, these engineered escape routes allow heavy commercial vehicles to safely arrest their momentum when service brakes overheat and fail. They typically feature a deep bed of loose aggregate or sand that creates rolling resistance, sinking the tires and bringing the massive vehicle to a controlled stop without a collision.
Heard on the job
The driver lost his air on the descent and had to take the runaway truck ramp just past mile marker 42.
Also heard as
- escape ramp
- truck escape ramp
- arrester bed