An approaching vehicle crosses the center line into your path. The manual tells you to reduce speed, sound your horn, and do what else?
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A.
Keep to the right even if this means running off the road. Correct
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B.
Swerve left into the vacated oncoming lane.
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C.
Brake to a complete stop on the pavement.
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D.
Flash your headlights to warn the other driver.
The answer is "Keep to the right even if this means running off the road."
The manual lists three actions for an oncoming vehicle crossing the center line: reduce speed, sound your horn, and keep to the right even if it means running off the road. The pull toward option B comes from treating this like a lane change, since the other driver vacated their lane coming toward you, so swinging left feels like it uses the open space. That reasoning fails because the other driver can still correct back at any moment, and the manual tells you to add distance to your right, not toward them.
The traps in the wrong answers
B. Swerve left into the vacated oncoming lane.
The vacated oncoming lane is not safer, because the other driver can correct back into it at any moment. Treats the empty oncoming lane like open passing space, carrying over the instinct to steer toward whatever lane looks clear. This answer mistakes the oncoming driver's drift for a committed lane change and assumes they will hold the new line, when a drifting driver typically swings back into their own lane.
C. Brake to a complete stop on the pavement.
Stopping on the pavement does not supply the action the manual prescribes: keep to the right, even if that means running off the road. Substitutes a hard brake for the directional move the manual actually lists. This answer substitutes a panic stop for the keep-right evasive direction, defaulting to the hardest brake a new driver reaches for under threat.
D. Flash your headlights to warn the other driver.
Flashing headlights is not on the manual's three-action list for this emergency; the third action is keeping to the right. Carries over a courtesy signal from passing and high-beam situations into an emergency where the manual asks for an evasive move. This answer reaches for the warning-flash habit from night driving, trading the seconds the manual wants spent buying escape distance to the right for a signal the drifting driver may never see in time.
This question tests your knowledge of Crash Procedures in North Carolina. Source: North Carolina Driver Handbook, "Chapter 4 - Your Driving, Unusual Emergencies," p.77..
Related North Carolina questions
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