If you need to slow down while driving on a slippery road, the first thing you should do is:
- Firmly apply your brakes.
- Take your foot off the gas pedal. ✓
- Apply your parking brake.
- Pump your brakes.
Answer: B. Take your foot off the gas pedal.
The first thing you should do is take your foot off the gas pedal.
Why this is the answer
The Florida handbook's emergency guidance repeatedly puts the same first step first: lift off the accelerator. In its skid and off-road instructions it says to take your foot off the gas pedal and not to use your brakes if possible; in another emergency section it says to take your foot off the gas pedal and then, only if necessary, press the brakes gently rather than slamming them. So when traction is poor, easing off the gas is the step that comes before any braking. The passages describe emergency handling generally rather than a slippery-road section specifically.
Why the other answers are wrong
- A. Firmly apply your brakes. — Firmly applying the brakes is the opposite of the handbook's advice to avoid braking if possible and, when you must slow, to press the brakes rather than slam them.
- C. Apply your parking brake. — Nothing in these passages tells you to use the parking brake in an emergency or on a low-traction surface.
- D. Pump your brakes. — Pumping the brakes does not appear anywhere in these passages; the guidance is to ease off the gas first and brake gently only if needed.
Remember it
Foot off the gas comes first; light braking comes second.