According to the manual's description of a crash, why does an unbelted person keep moving after the vehicle stops?
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A.
The body keeps traveling at the vehicle's original speed until it hits the dashboard or windshield. Correct
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B.
The seat belt reduces the vehicle's stopping distance by absorbing impact energy.
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C.
The airbag pushes the occupant backward into the seat during deployment.
The answer is "The body keeps traveling at the vehicle's original speed until it hits the dashboard or windshield."
The manual walks through the crash physics: your vehicle stops on impact, but your body keeps traveling at the original speed until something inside the car stops it. Choice B reads the belt as slowing the vehicle rather than the occupant, which is the job of brakes and crumple zones.
The traps in the wrong answers
B. The seat belt reduces the vehicle's stopping distance by absorbing impact energy.
Seat belts act on the occupant; the vehicle's stopping distance comes from the brakes and the crash structure. This answer confuses the belt's job on the body with the brake system's job on the vehicle.
C. The airbag pushes the occupant backward into the seat during deployment.
The airbag deploys on its own timing; the belt's role in this passage is holding the occupant in place. This answer blends the seat-belt lesson with a separate airbag warning printed later in the section.
This question tests your knowledge of Safety Belts & Restraints in California. Source: California Driver Manual, "Seat Belts," p.65..
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