If a traffic light is out-of-order, drivers should:
- Treat the intersection as a four-way stop. ✓
- Treat the intersection as a roundabout.
- Drive without stopping but proceed with caution.
- Assume they have the right-of-way.
Answer: A. Treat the intersection as a four-way stop.
When a traffic light is out of order, treat the intersection as a four-way stop.
Why this is the answer
The handbook says plainly that if a signal is out of order and no law enforcement officer is directing traffic, drivers should treat the light and intersection as a four-way stop sign. The power outage section adds how that works: vehicles go in the order they arrived, and if two arrive at once, the driver on the left yields to the driver on the right. So the stop-and-take-turns rule replaces the dead signal, keeping traffic moving in a predictable order.
Why the other answers are wrong
- B. Treat the intersection as a roundabout. — A roundabout is a different kind of intersection with its own yield rules, and the handbook never tells you to drive a dead signal like one.
- C. Drive without stopping but proceed with caution. — Rolling through without stopping ignores the handbook's instruction to treat the intersection as a four-way stop, which requires coming to a stop.
- D. Assume they have the right-of-way. — No one simply gets the right-of-way at a dead signal; the handbook has drivers go in arrival order and yield left to right when they arrive together.
Remember it
Dead light? Picture four stop signs in its place: first to arrive goes first, and ties go to the driver on the right.