To avoid hydroplaning while driving in rainy conditions, you should:

1. Drive at a speed appropriate for ideal conditions.
2. Apply your brakes as soon as your car starts to skid.
3. Slow down. ✓

Answer: C. Slow down.

Slow down — the handbook lists driving slowly as the way to avoid hydroplaning in wet or rainy conditions.

Why this is the answer

The handbook explains that hydroplaning happens when tires ride on water and lose all contact with the road, so even a small steering change, a brake tap, or a gust of wind can send the car into a skid. The first step it gives for avoiding this is to drive slowly, and it repeats that advice for changing lanes or direction and when you hear sloshing from the tires.

Why the other answers are wrong

• A. Drive at a speed appropriate for ideal conditions. — Driving at a speed suited to ideal conditions ignores the handbook's advice to drive slowly in wet or rainy weather, which is exactly when hydroplaning happens.
• B. Apply your brakes as soon as your car starts to skid. — The handbook says not to use the brakes if your vehicle starts to hydroplane, because sudden braking may cause you to lose control.

Remember it

If the road is wet, think slow: ease off the gas and skip the brakes if you start to slide on water.