When driving under icy or snowy conditions, which driving technique will help drivers avoid crashes?
- Add extra weight to their vehicles to improve traction.
- Get off the highways as quickly as possible.
- Engage the four-wheel drive on their vehicles.
- Reduce their speed and increase their following distance. ✓
Answer: D. Reduce their speed and increase their following distance.
Reduce your speed and increase your following distance.
Why this is the answer
The Texas handbook's winter driving tips tell you to put more distance between your car and the vehicle ahead, because rear-end collisions on icy streets happen when drivers leave too little room to stop. It also says to reduce speed to match conditions. Another chapter says that in bad weather or low visibility you must adjust speed and following distance to help avoid crashes. Together these passages point to slowing down and leaving a bigger gap as the winter technique.
Why the other answers are wrong
- A. Add extra weight to their vehicles to improve traction. — Adding extra weight is not listed among the handbook's winter precautions, so it is not the technique the passages support.
- B. Get off the highways as quickly as possible. — The passages do not advise leaving the highway quickly as a winter crash-avoidance technique; they focus on speed and space.
- C. Engage the four-wheel drive on their vehicles. — Engaging four-wheel drive is not mentioned in the passages as a way to handle icy or snowy roads.
Remember it
Think of the icy-road rule as two dials: turn speed down and turn space up.