Impaired Driving & Penalties — North Carolina
North Carolina motorcycle permit practice test: 342 free practice questions (Based on the official driver handbook). The official format is not yet verified; check the official site before your test. Impaired Driving & Penalties: 21 questions.
Blood alcohol limits, drugs and fatigue, licence suspensions, demerit points and fines.
This topic page is still being reviewed against the official handbook. Until review is finished it is hidden from search engines.
| Topic / Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Topic | Impaired Driving & Penalties |
| License test | North Carolina Motorcycle permit test |
| Topic questions | 21 (6% of 342 total) |
| Review status | This topic page is still being reviewed against the official handbook. Until review is finished it is hidden from search engines. |
Official handbook
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Questions (21)
1. If a friend has been drinking and wants to ride their motorcycle, you should:
- Let them.
- Encourage them to take less-crowded roads.
- Push their bike over.
- Encourage friends to talk them out of riding. ✓
Answer: D. Encourage friends to talk them out of riding.
Encourage friends to talk them out of riding — the manual says to get a group of friends involved and use peer pressure to intervene. The manual treats a rider who has had too much to drink as someone who cannot make a responsible decision, so it falls to others to step in and stop them from taking a big risk. One of its listed tactics is to get friends involved: bring a group together and use peer pressure to intervene. It also suggests slowing the drinking, keeping the person there with excuses, taking the key and securing the bike, or arranging another way home.
2. Waiting for one hour to ride after having one drink:
- Guarantees that you cannot be arrested for drinking and riding.
- Guarantees that your riding skills will not be affected.
- Should be fine as long as you ride slowly.
- May not entirely remove the effects of alcohol from your body. ✓
Answer: D. May not entirely remove the effects of alcohol from your body.
Waiting an hour after one drink may not entirely remove the effects of alcohol from your body, so you can still be impaired when you get on the bike. The manual explains that alcohol is usually cleared at roughly one drink per hour, but that figure is only a rough average. Your sex, physical condition, food intake and how fast you drank can all push your blood alcohol level higher, and alcohol can keep building up in your body even at one drink per hour, especially for women. The manual is direct that abilities and judgment can be affected by that single drink. So passing an hour does not mean the alcohol is gone.
3. If a friend has had too much to drink and wants to ride their motorcycle, you should:
- Let them.
- Encourage them to take roads that are not crowded.
- Not get involved.
- Take their keys. ✓
Answer: D. Take their keys.
You should take their keys and secure the bike so your friend cannot ride while impaired. The manual says a person who has had too much to drink cannot make a responsible decision, so others need to step in. It lists ways to keep a friend off the bike, including using an excuse to delay them, serving food and coffee, and explaining the risks. Most directly, it says to take their key if you can and secure the motorcycle. Taking the keys puts that guidance into action and stops the impaired friend from riding.
4. The only way to rid your body of alcohol is through:
- Time. ✓
- Drinking coffee.
- Exercising.
- Taking a cold shower.
Answer: A. Time.
The only way to rid your body of alcohol is time; the manual says alcohol clears at roughly one drink per hour. The handbook explains that alcohol enters the bloodstream quickly and affects mental and physical functions. It says the body eliminates alcohol at a rate of almost one drink per hour. It also says drinking faster causes more alcohol to build up and remain in your bloodstream. So the alcohol leaves as hours pass, not through another action you take.
5. The human body rids itself of about one alcoholic drink per hour. If a person consumes seven drinks in three hours, how many drinks likely remain in that person’s system three hours after their final drink?
- Two
- Three
- Four ✓
- Five
Answer: C. Four
6. If you are feeling tired while riding, you should:
- Keep going and hope to wake up.
- Ride faster.
- Ride on the shoulder.
- Get off the road and rest. ✓
Answer: D. Get off the road and rest.
If you are feeling tired while riding, get off the road and rest. The manual warns that riding a motorcycle tires you faster than driving a car, that fatigue can affect your control of the motorcycle, and that you should avoid riding when tired. It also tells riders to take frequent rest breaks, stopping and getting off the motorcycle at least every two hours. A separate section covers leaving the road just to rest, which reinforces that pulling off and resting is the expected response to fatigue rather than pushing on.
7. Which of the following is not a way to prevent a friend from driving while intoxicated?
- Arrange a safe ride home for them.
- Get them involved in activities to slow their drinking and keep them busy while they sober up.
- Make them wait 15 minutes after their last drink before driving. ✓
- Get other friends involved in stopping your friend from driving.
Answer: C. Make them wait 15 minutes after their last drink before driving.
Making a friend wait 15 minutes after their last drink before driving is not a way to prevent them from riding intoxicated. The manual treats alcohol impairment as something your body has to clear out, not something a short pause fixes. In its section on stepping in to protect a friend, it says that if someone has gone past their limit, the answer is to wait until their system eliminates the alcohol and its after-effects, and it also suggests leaving the motorcycle behind and arranging another way home. A 15-minute delay does nothing to remove alcohol, so it does not count as a real prevention step, while the other choices do.
8. When consumed together, the effects of alcohol and drugs:
- Can be more pronounced than when either is consumed alone. ✓
- Are less dangerous than when either is consumed alone.
- Are usually minimal.
- Often balance out.
Answer: A. Can be more pronounced than when either is consumed alone.
When alcohol and drugs are consumed together, their effects can be more pronounced than when either is consumed alone. The manual states plainly that alcohol and drugs together are more dangerous than either one by itself. It explains that alcohol and drugs impair judgment, clear thinking, and the physical skills needed to ride, and that impairment can begin before legal limits are reached. Since each substance already reduces your ability to ride well, the manual's warning about combined effects supports the answer that the effects can be stronger together than alone.
9. A person with a minimum blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of ______ is considered legally intoxicated.
- 0.02 percent
- 0.04 percent
- 0.08 percent ✓
- 0.1 percent
Answer: C. 0.08 percent
A person is considered legally intoxicated at a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 percent. The manual states that in all but one state, an adult with a BAC of 0.08% or above is treated as intoxicated; Utah is the single exception with a 0.05% threshold. The same page repeats that 0.08% is the legal limit when it describes riders killed in crashes with BAC levels above it. So for adults generally, 0.08 percent is the number the law uses, and that is the figure the test is asking for.
10. If you wait an hour per alcoholic drink before you ride your motorcycle:
- You cannot be arrested for drinking and riding.
- Your skills will not be affected.
- Side effects may still remain. ✓
- You will be fine as long as you ride slowly.
Answer: C. Side effects may still remain.
Even if you wait an hour per alcoholic drink, side effects may still remain. Waiting one hour for each drink is not a guarantee that alcohol is gone. The manual's own answer says that drinking may leave side effects that continue. Another page explains that alcohol can still build up even when you have about one drink per hour, and that one drink can affect abilities and judgment. So the fact that an hour has passed for each drink does not mean you are clear to ride.
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Last checked: 2026-10-17 · Verified from official source
Updated: · Based on the official driver handbook