What should you do if your vehicle’s right wheels leave the pavement?
- Stop quickly.
- Immediately pull all the way off of the road and get back on when it is safe.
- Accelerate and steer back on the road quickly.
- Take your foot off the accelerator, slow down, then ease back onto the road when it is safe to do so. ✓
Answer: D. Take your foot off the accelerator, slow down, then ease back onto the road when it is safe to do so.
Take your foot off the accelerator, slow down, and ease back onto the road only when it is safe to do so.
Why this is the answer
The handbook's advice for running off the pavement is to grip the wheel, lift off the gas pedal, and avoid sudden hard braking or swinging back onto the road. Wait until your speed has dropped, check the traffic behind you, and then carefully return to the pavement. That matches easing back on once it is safe, and it keeps you from losing control of the car while you are partly on the shoulder.
Why the other answers are wrong
- A. Stop quickly. — Stopping quickly is the sudden, hard braking the handbook warns against when you run off the pavement.
- B. Immediately pull all the way off of the road and get back on when it is safe. — Pulling all the way off and waiting there is not what the handbook says; it tells you to slow down first and then drive back onto the pavement after checking traffic behind you.
- C. Accelerate and steer back on the road quickly. — Accelerating and steering back fast is the risky swing back onto the pavement the handbook says not to do.
Remember it
Off the pavement: off the gas, slow down, look behind, then ease back on.