12.3 Slow-Moving Vehicles, Funeral Processions, Road Workers & Animals

The last part of the Manual's sharing-the-road section covers road users with special rights or special risks. These rules are seldom used day to day but are easy to test, especially the funeral procession rules.

Slow-Moving Vehicles

Most farm vehicles, construction rigs and other slow-moving vehicles carry orange warning signs on the back. When you approach one:

• reduce speed and use caution;
• treat it much like a bicyclist or pedestrian;
• leave plenty of space around it if you plan to pass, and pass only where passing is legal (section 12.1).

Following distance still applies. The Manual recommends at least ten seconds behind heavy equipment such as dump trucks and tractors (section 5.1).

Funeral Processions

A funeral procession is two or more vehicles, including a lead or escort vehicle, traveling during daylight hours with the body or cremated remains of a deceased person. M.G.L. c. 85, s. 14A sets the rules.

The procession's right-of-way

• Funeral processions have the right-of-way at intersections, except that they must yield to emergency vehicles with flashing lights or sirens, or when law enforcement directs.
• If the lead vehicle (a hearse or a police vehicle) legally enters an intersection, the whole procession may follow, even if the light changes or there is a stop sign.

If you are driving in the procession

If you are not part of the procession

• Don't drive between procession vehicles, unless law enforcement directs you or you are driving an emergency vehicle with siren and lights on.
• Don't join the procession.
• Don't pass a procession on its right on a multilane highway, unless it is in the far left lane.
• Don't cross an intersection while a procession is going through a red light, even on your green, unless you can do it without crossing the procession's path.

Purple lights

A vehicle owned by a funeral home or funeral director may show a flashing purple light, and no other color, when driven by the owner, an employee or a contractor of the funeral home during a procession. Otherwise, flashing lights on private vehicles need an RMV permit (section 4.1).

Road Workers and Repair Crews

Even where a work site is well posted, you must take extra care for anyone working on the roadway. Orange signs and work equipment usually mean people on foot nearby. Follow road work signs carefully, stay alert, watch for sudden changes in road direction or condition and be ready to stop. A speeding citation in a work area doubles the fine. The Manual reports 898 work zone deaths nationally in 2023. Section 10.1 covers flaggers and devices.

Animals and Horse-Drawn Vehicles

Always give the right-of-way to an animal being led, ridden or driven. Animals scare easily around motor vehicles. When you approach an animal or horse-drawn vehicle:

1. Slow down.
2. Stop if the animal or vehicle is coming toward you or crossing your path, and let it pass.
3. If it is going the same direction, leave plenty of room to pass and drive at a reasonable speed.
4. Don't honk or make loud noises.
5. If the animal looks frightened, you must pull to the side and stop.
6. Go on only when it is safe.
7. You must stop if a rider or driver signals you to.

The law covers horses, cows and any other draft animals. In rural areas, take extra care passing hay rides, which are usually animal-drawn and full of passengers. People riding horses or driving horse-drawn carriages are also vulnerable road users, entitled to the four-foot passing distance (section 6.1).

Expected Student Responses