____ greatly increase stopping distances and severity of crashes.
- High speeds ✓
- Slow speeds
- Night drives
- Uphill inclines
Answer: A. High speeds
High speeds greatly increase stopping distances and the severity of crashes.
Why this is the answer
The handbook's speed chapter says that because of high speeds, drivers cannot react to common road hazards or other driving situations, and that this often ends in a crash. The chapter on slowing down makes the same point from the other side: you should always be able to stop within the distance you can see ahead, and you are told to slow down when roads are wet, crowded, or your view is limited. Speed is the factor the handbook ties to crash results, so it is the choice that fits the blank.
Why the other answers are wrong
- B. Slow speeds — Slow speeds are what the handbook tells you to choose when roads are wet, crowded, or your vision is limited, so they work against longer stopping distances rather than causing them.
- C. Night drives — The handbook treats darkness as a problem of limited vision that should make you slow down and avoid driving beyond what you can see, not as something that by itself stretches out stopping distance.
- D. Uphill inclines — Uphill grades are not mentioned anywhere in these passages, and no increase in stopping distance is credited to driving on an incline.
Remember it
When a question asks what makes stopping worse, pick the one thing the handbook blames for drivers not being able to react in time: going fast.
Official handbook: Texas Driver Handbook (DL-7), Chapter 8: Speed and Speed Limits , p. 46