You are driving on the freeway behind a large truck. You should drive:
- Closer behind the truck than you would if following a passenger vehicle.
- Farther behind the truck than you would if following a passenger vehicle. ✓
- To the right side of the truck and wait to pass.
Answer: B. Farther behind the truck than you would if following a passenger vehicle.
You should drive farther behind the truck than you would if following a passenger vehicle.
Why this is the answer
The handbook lists following too closely as something not to do around large vehicles and trucks, because tailgating shrinks your safety distance. It also explains that a large vehicle needs more room and more distance to stop than a passenger vehicle at the same speed, so the space you leave needs to be bigger, not smaller. Keeping well back gives you room to react when the truck slows or stops.
Why the other answers are wrong
- A. Closer behind the truck than you would if following a passenger vehicle. — Closing in tighter ignores the handbook's warning against tailgating and its point that a heavy truck needs a longer stopping distance than a car.
- C. To the right side of the truck and wait to pass. — The handbook says to always pass a large vehicle on the left and warns against driving alongside one, so waiting on the right side is the wrong place to be.
Remember it
Think of a truck as needing a long runway to stop, so give it a long runway of following distance too.