Page 60 - Driving Commercial Vehicles Manual

driving commercial vehicles

Emergency vehicles
fast fact
Police cars, ambulances and fire engines are equipped with flashing lights
On a divided highway with and/or sirens. Yield the right-of-way to vehicles that are using flashing red
two or more lanes, the or blue lights and sirens (or other audible warning signals such as buzzers or
nearest edge could be the horns). You must quickly:
left shoulder.
• drive to a position parallel to and as close as possible to the nearest edge
or curb of the roadway
• stop your vehicle clear of any intersection

• remain stopped until the emergency vehicle has passed.
Don’t assume that there’s only one emergency vehicle on the road. Listen and
You must yield the right-of- look for others. When you resume driving, stay well back from the emergency
way to emergency vehicles vehicle(s).
such as police cars and
ambulances. Whenever you
see flashing lights and/or
hear sirens, be sure to pull
off to the side of the road
and stop. If you’re travelling
in the left, or fast lane on a
divided highway that has a
median in the middle, pull off
to the left side of the road.

Stopped vehicles with flashing lights

Drivers must slow down and leave plenty of room when passing stopped
vehicles displaying flashing lights to make highways safer for law enforcement,
emergency personnel and other roadside workers. This rule applies to all
vehicles authorized to display flashing yellow, red, white or blue lights,
including those used by fire departments, law enforcement, commercial
vehicle inspectors, conservation officers, paramedics, tow truck operators,
highway maintenance workers, utility workers, land surveyors, animal control
workers and garbage collectors.
When approaching these types of vehicles, you must drive no faster than
fast fact 70 km/h if the speed limit is 80 km/h or more, and no faster than 40 km/h if
the speed limit is less than 80 km/h. (Exception: this rule does not apply if
you are on a divided highway and approaching the vehicle with flashing lights
Failure to change lanes from the opposite direction.)
and/or slow down when
passing a stopped vehicle If you are in the lane nearest to the stopped vehicle displaying flashing lights,
displaying flashing lights you must also change lanes to provide safe space margins if it is safe to do so.
may result in a traffic
violation and penalty points.
Shifting gears

You’re probably familiar with operating automatic transmissions. As a
commercial driver you may operate vehicles with manual transmissions that
have 10 or more gears. Heavy vehicles are usually powered by diesel engines
equipped with engine fuel governors.

You need the knowledge, instruction and practice to operate large vehicle
transmissions smoothly. Before you start out on any trip, you also need to be
familiar with the shift pattern and shift points of your vehicle.

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