If one of your tires blows out as you are driving, you should:
- Brake hard immediately.
- Try to steer straight while gradually slowing by removing your foot from the gas pedal. ✓
- Maintain your current speed and steer straight.
- Swerve back and forth to alert traffic behind you.
Answer: B. Try to steer straight while gradually slowing by removing your foot from the gas pedal.
Try to steer straight while gradually slowing by removing your foot from the gas pedal.
Why this is the answer
The handbook's emergency section tells you to take your foot off the gas pedal, avoid slamming on the brakes, and steer carefully where you want the car to go. It also warns that overcorrection, meaning too much steering in reaction to losing control, can cause a rollover or send you into oncoming traffic. So with a blown tire you keep the car pointed straight and let it slow down on its own instead of hitting the brakes hard or jerking the wheel.
Why the other answers are wrong
- A. Brake hard immediately. — The handbook says to press the brakes gently and not slam them, which is the opposite of braking hard.
- C. Maintain your current speed and steer straight. — Holding your speed keeps the car moving fast on a damaged tire, while the handbook's emergency steps have you slow the vehicle down.
- D. Swerve back and forth to alert traffic behind you. — Weaving is exactly the excessive steering the handbook warns against, since overcorrecting can lead to a rollover or a steer into oncoming traffic.
Remember it
Foot off the gas, wheel held firm, no hard braking: let the car settle before you do anything else.