You approach a police car stopped on the shoulder with its emergency signal lights flashing. What must you do?
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A.
Move over into another lane and slow down as you pass. Correct
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B.
Come to a full stop until the vehicle turns off its lights.
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C.
Keep your normal speed and stay in your current lane.
The answer is "Move over into another lane and slow down as you pass."
For a stationary emergency vehicle with hazard lights on, the rule is to move into another lane and slow down. Choice B is the trap: drivers reflex to the 'pull right and stop' response used for approaching emergency vehicles, applying that habit to a stopped scene that requires the opposite motion.
The traps in the wrong answers
B. Come to a full stop until the vehicle turns off its lights.
The manual asks you to move over and slow, not to come to a complete stop. This answer applies the pull-right-and-stop habit for approaching emergency vehicles to a stopped one instead.
C. Keep your normal speed and stay in your current lane.
Maintaining speed in the same lane ignores the move-over-and-slow-down requirement. This answer treats the stopped emergency car as an ordinary roadside hazard rather than a protected scene.
This question tests your knowledge of Right of Way in California. Source: California Driver Manual, "Emergency Vehicles," p.45..
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