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General Knowledge · Seeing Hazards

Why should a CDL driver treat a van with a loaded cargo area, or a rental truck, as a greater hazard than an ordinary passenger car nearby?

1.Because the driver's view to the sides or rear may be blocked, and a rental driver may be unfamiliar with that limitCorrect answer
2.Because those particular vehicle types are legally restricted under state law to driving at slower highway speeds than passenger cars
3.Because vans and rental trucks are statistically shown to be far more likely to be uninsured than an ordinary passenger car
4.Because their turn signals are wired together differently and cannot be relied upon to indicate an actual direction change

Explanation

A van with a blocked rear window or a rental truck is a heightened hazard because its driver's visibility to the sides and rear may be limited, and someone unfamiliar with a rental vehicle is less likely to compensate for that blind spot, making a sudden lane change or backing movement more likely without warning. Recognizing this kind of road-user-based hazard clue is part of the required knowledge CDL applicants must have under 49 CFR 383.111(a)(13)(ii), but that paragraph only names "road user activities" as a required knowledge topic; it does not itself identify blocked-vision vehicles as a specific hazard clue, which is standard driver-training content rather than a codified federal rule. The other options fail for a shared reason: each invents a legal or mechanical fact about these vehicles, a speed restriction, an insurance statistic, or faulty signal wiring, that has no basis in fact.

Source: 49 CFR 383.111(a)(13)(ii)

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