General Knowledge · Distracted Driving
Eating a meal while driving and glancing at a roadside billboard are both distractions, but driver-training material sorts them into two different categories. What distinguishes the two?
Explanation
Eating is classified as an internal distraction because it originates inside the cab, while a billboard is an external distraction because it draws attention to something outside the vehicle; both take a driver's attention off the road, just from different directions. Awareness of distraction as a driving hazard is part of the required knowledge CDL applicants must have under 49 CFR 383.111(a)(1)(ii), but that paragraph only points broadly at "procedures for safe vehicle operations" across several CFR parts; it does not itself define or categorize distraction types, which is standard driver-training content rather than a codified federal rule. The other options fail for a shared reason: each invents a legal status or a condition (illegality, team driving, time of day) that has nothing to do with the actual internal/external distinction.
Source: 49 CFR 383.111(a)(1)(ii)
Related Distracted Driving questions
- A CDL driver is stopped at a red light with the engine running. Under federal regulation, is it permissible to send a text message at that moment?
- A CDL driver wants to make a hand-held phone call. Under federal regulation, when is this actually permitted?
- While driving, a CDL driver unbuckles and leans over toward the passenger seat to grab a ringing phone, without ever holding it to their ear. Does this violate the federal hand-held phone restriction?
- Under federal regulation, which of the following is the one way a CDL driver may answer an incoming call on a mounted mobile phone without it counting as "hand-held" use?