It is illegal to follow within ____ of a fire truck that is sounding its siren.
- One mile
- 1,000 feet
- 750 feet
- 500 feet ✓
Answer: D. 500 feet
It is illegal to follow closer than 500 feet behind a fire truck that is sounding its siren.
Why this is the answer
The handbook's section on yielding to emergency vehicles sets a specific following limit: you may not trail a fire truck that is answering an alarm closer than 500 feet. The same paragraph applies that distance to an ambulance running its flashing red lights. The reason behind it is room — the crew needs space to work and to stop or turn without you crowding them. When an emergency vehicle comes up behind you instead, the handbook tells you to pull to the right edge and stop if traffic allows, or at least slow down and leave a clear path.
Why the other answers are wrong
- A. One mile — One mile is far beyond any distance the handbook gives for following an emergency vehicle, so it is not the legal limit.
- B. 1,000 feet — 1,000 feet appears in the handbook only as a visibility standard for using headlights, not as a following distance behind fire trucks.
- C. 750 feet — 750 feet does not appear as a following limit anywhere in these passages; the fire station parking rule uses 75 feet, which is a different rule.
Remember it
Half of a thousand: stay 500 feet back from a fire truck on a call, and remember 300 feet is the low-beam rule when you are the one following another car.