Special Safety Considerations
What this domain tests
Special Safety Considerations covers the physical hazards of driving a large bus: backing, tail swing, height and weight limits, weather, grades, and refueling. Items tend to describe a maneuver and ask what the driver must watch.
Core rules
- Avoid backing. When you must back, use a spotter, back slowly, check both mirrors, and stop if you lose sight of the spotter. Never back to load students.
- Tail swing: the rear of the bus swings outside the path of the front wheels in a turn. Turning right, the rear swings left into the next lane.
- Know your bus's height and weight and obey posted clearance and bridge limits.
- Winter: reduce speed, brake and steer gently, use chains where permitted, and watch for ice on bridges and shaded pavement.
- Hot weather: check tires and coolant and watch the temperature gauge on long grades.
- Downhill: select a lower gear and do not ride the brakes.
- No riders aboard while the bus is being refueled or towed.
Worked example
A driver turns right into a narrow residential street. As the front swings into the turn, the rear of the bus sweeps left toward a parked car. The driver checks the left mirror, waits for the lane to clear, and takes the turn wide.
Traps that cost marks
- Backing without a spotter or continuing when the spotter disappears.
- Forgetting tail swing and clipping a vehicle or a student on the inside of the turn.
- Crossing a bridge with a posted weight limit below the loaded bus weight.
- Riding the brakes down a long grade until they fade.