If your wheels drop off the pavement and onto the shoulder of the road, you should:
- Brake hard and turn sharply back onto the pavement.
- Stop your car on the edge of the road.
- Slow down and very carefully turn back onto the pavement. ✓
- Maintain your speed and turn sharply back onto the pavement.
Answer: C. Slow down and very carefully turn back onto the pavement.
Slow down and very carefully turn back onto the pavement.
Why this is the answer
The Texas handbook says that if you run off the pavement, you should not brake suddenly or jerk the wheel. Take your foot off the gas, use the brakes gently, and wait until your speed is lower. Then check the traffic behind you and steer back onto the pavement carefully. That matches slowing down and making a careful return, rather than a sharp move at speed.
Why the other answers are wrong
- A. Brake hard and turn sharply back onto the pavement. — Braking hard and turning sharply is the opposite of the handbook's warning against sudden hard braking and swinging back onto the pavement.
- B. Stop your car on the edge of the road. — Stopping on the edge is not what the handbook describes; it says to reduce speed, check behind you, and then carefully drive back onto the pavement.
- D. Maintain your speed and turn sharply back onto the pavement. — Keeping your speed and turning sharply conflicts with the handbook's instruction to wait until speed is reduced and avoid swinging back onto the pavement.
Remember it
Ease off the gas first, let the car slow, glance behind, then steer back gently.