If the job calls for it, a placarded vehicle that carries no Division 1.1, 1.2 or 1.3 explosives may park within 5 feet of the traveled part of the road, but only briefly. While it is parked on a public road or shoulder, someone must watch it.
Division 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3 explosives may not be parked within 300 feet of bridges, tunnels, buildings, or places where people gather; the only exception is a brief stop for something the vehicle needs to keep operating, such as fuel.
When parked, a vehicle hauling these explosives has to stay at least 300 feet away from buildings, and the same spacing applies to bridges, tunnels, open fires, and places where crowds gather. The distance protects people and property in case the load explodes.
Only an area designated for this purpose, typically by local officials, counts as a safe haven for leaving an explosives-laden vehicle unattended. Permission from a property owner or a rest area reserved for certain drivers does not make a place a safe haven.
You may hand over the job of watching your parked vehicle only when it is on premises belonging to the shipper, the carrier, or the consignee (the business receiving the load). Being tired or trusting the other person does not create an exception.
Someone has to stay in control of the nozzle for as long as fuel is flowing into a placarded vehicle, so a spill can be stopped at once instead of spreading next to hazardous cargo.
The rule for these explosives is to keep a parked vehicle 300 feet or more away from any bridge, as well as from tunnels, buildings, open fires, and places where people gather. That buffer protects people and structures if the load ever explodes.
If you carry Division 1.1, 1.2, or 1.3 explosives, your parked vehicle must stay at least 300 feet from bridges, tunnels, buildings, open fires, and places where people gather. The only exceptions are short stops that operating the vehicle demands, like refueling.
A fire near hazardous cargo could set off an explosion or a release, so a placarded vehicle may go near an open fire only if it can get by safely without stopping. Carrying explosives makes a fire more dangerous, not less, and no onboard equipment creates an exception.
When your load includes Division 1.1, 1.2, or 1.3 explosives, park at least 300 feet from any bridge, tunnel, building, crowd or open fire. The one exception is a brief stop that is truly necessary, such as refueling.
Explosives in Divisions 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3 may never be parked within 5 feet of the lanes that carry traffic, and turning on your flashers creates no exception.
Stopping close to flames could let the fire reach the hazardous cargo, so a placarded vehicle may go near an open fire only if it can keep moving and pass it safely.
Federal parking rules keep any vehicle with hazardous cargo at least 300 feet away from an open fire, since heat or blowing embers could ignite the load or cause a container to fail.
Safe havens are places that government authorities, usually local ones, have approved for parking vehicles loaded with explosives with no one watching them. The term is not trucker slang and has nothing to do with waste disposal.
Class A and Class B explosives, which correspond to today's Divisions 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3, must never be parked within 5 feet of the road, while most other hazmat loads may stop that close briefly when the job requires it.
Most placarded vehicles may make a brief stop within 5 feet of the traveled lanes if the work requires it. A vehicle hauling Division 1.1, 1.2 or 1.3 explosives, however, must never park so close to passing traffic.
A vehicle carrying explosives of Division 1.1, 1.2 or 1.3 may never be parked closer than 5 feet to the lanes traffic uses, so the minimum clearance is 5 feet.
Every question in this set has its own page with the correct answer and an explanation.
