More than 45,000 people have taken a new ICBC online test aimed at refreshing drivers’ knowledge of the rules of the road.
And the results aren’t particularly encouraging.
The public insurer said if those same people had been taking the ICBC knowledge test — the multiple choice quiz required for a learner’s permit — 40 per cent of them would have failed.
Passing the knowledge test requires a score of 80 per cent or higher.
The average score across all test-takers was 79 per cent.
READ MORE: There were 960 vehicle collisions a day in B.C. last year, an all-time high
According to ICBC, drivers had the toughest time with questions about what to do around emergency vehicles, how far to stay behind another car on the road and the meaning of a variety of road signs.
There was one area where drivers excelled: distracted driving laws.
ICBC says test-takers had near perfect scores on questions related to texting while driving. That’s despite more than 34,000 people being ticketed for using an electronic device last year.
These are the top five questions B.C. drivers had trouble with:
- When approaching a stopped emergency vehicle with flashing lights on highways with speed limits of under 80 km/h, in addition to changing lanes, drivers must slow to: 40 km/h
- When approaching a stopped emergency vehicle with flashing lights on highways with speed limits of 80 km/h or over, in addition to changing lanes, drivers must slow to: 70 km/h
- The minimum following distance when behind a large vehicle or a motorcycle on a high speed road, should be: 3 seconds
- The minimum following distance in bad weather or slippery conditions on high speed roads, should be: 4 seconds
- Drivers are required to yield to a public transit bus that is signaling to enter traffic: on all roads where the speed limit is 60km/h or lower
ICBC also found drivers had big problems with some common road signs:
According to ICBC, 2017 was a record year for crashes in the province, with about 350,000 collisions reported.
It says there were more than $4.8 billion in claims last year.
If you haven’t taken ICBC’s Drive Smart refresher test, you can try it out here.
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