What is the safest action to take when your vehicle drives over black ice?
- Accelerate hard to clear the ice
- Brake hard while gripping the steering wheel tightly
- Calmly remove your foot from the accelerator and steer in the direction you want to go ✓
- Ease off the accelerator and steer immediately to side of the road
Answer: C. Calmly remove your foot from the accelerator and steer in the direction you want to go
When your vehicle hits black ice, calmly ease your foot off the accelerator and keep steering in the direction you want the vehicle to travel.
Why this is the answer
The handbook's advice on skids is the closest match here: don't panic, because control is still possible, ease off the accelerator or brake, and keep steering where you want to go without oversteering. Black ice takes away grip, so the goal is to avoid anything sudden and let the vehicle slow while you guide it. Braking or accelerating hard on ice is the opposite of the gentle, smooth handling the handbook asks for once grip returns.
Why the other answers are wrong
- A. Accelerate hard to clear the ice — Adding power on ice spins the wheels and makes a slide worse, and the handbook tells you to ease off the accelerator, not press it.
- B. Brake hard while gripping the steering wheel tightly — Hard braking on a slippery surface takes away what little grip you have, while the handbook says to brake only gently and smoothly after you regain control.
- D. Ease off the accelerator and steer immediately to side of the road — That response comes from the wheels-off-the-pavement situation, and steering straight for the shoulder while still sliding is not the calm, gentle correction the skid advice describes.
Remember it
On ice, do less: hands steady, foot off the gas, eyes on where you want to end up.