What minimum distance must you keep from a preceding vehicle if you drive a bus outside a built-up area, in a tunnel whose length exceeds 500 m?
Show the correct answer
Correct answer
B. 50 m.
Explanation
In the photo you can see the inside of a lit tunnel with several cars driving ahead of you. When driving a bus outside a built-up area in a tunnel longer than 500 m, you keep a following distance of at least 50 m - answer B.
The Road Traffic Act states that outside a built-up area, in tunnels longer than 500 m, the driver of a vehicle with a maximum permissible mass of up to 3.5 t or of a bus must keep a distance of at least 50 m from the vehicle in front. A bus is listed here together with lighter vehicles, so the 80 m limit (answer C), which applies to vehicle combinations and to vehicles over 3.5 t other than a bus, does not apply to you. The value 30 m (answer A) is too small. The traffic management authority may reduce or increase this distance with signs. In a tunnel, the following distance gives you time to react in a traffic jam or a fire, because it is hard to go around an obstacle there.
Legal basis: Art. 19 para. 4 point 1 and para. 5 of the Road Traffic Act (Prawo o ruchu drogowym)