Emergency Procedures
What this domain tests
Evacuation decisions, exit knowledge, fire response, accounting for passengers, and reporting. The exam favors questions about what to do first and in what order.
Core rules
- Know every exit before you need one: main door, rear door, side windows, and roof hatches, and how each releases.
- Sequence for fire or smoke: stop the bus in a safe spot, shut off the engine, set the parking brake, evacuate, then call 911. Move passengers upwind and at least 100 feet from the vehicle.
- Open the engine cover only slightly to use an extinguisher; a full opening feeds oxygen to the fire. Fight only a small fire you are trained and equipped to handle.
- Evacuate passengers first and the driver last, after a count. Count again at the assembly point and report anyone missing to responders.
- Report the incident to your carrier, note the location, injuries, and damage, and complete the required written report.
- Hijacking: do not resist or escalate. Follow instructions, avoid sudden moves, and pass observations to police afterward.
- Mechanical failures: for brake loss, downshift, apply the parking brake gradually, and look for a runaway ramp or open shoulder; for a blowout, hold the wheel firmly, avoid hard braking, and slow gradually.
Worked example
Smoke appears from the dashboard of a loaded bus at a curbside stop. The driver sets the parking brake, shuts off the engine, opens the door and orders an evacuation away from the front of the bus, walks the group upwind 100 feet, counts 38 of 38 passengers, then calls 911 and the dispatcher. Fighting the fire is secondary and is attempted only with the mounted extinguisher if the fire is small and the exit path stays clear.
Traps
Evacuating toward the fire; letting passengers return for belongings; leaving the engine running during evacuation; failing to set the parking brake; skipping the count; delaying the 911 call until the carrier is notified.