You are about to be hit. What is the manual's first instruction for what to do with your hands?
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A.
Keep a tight grip on the steering wheel. Correct
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B.
Release the wheel and shield your face with your arms.
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C.
Rest one hand on the horn to keep sounding it.
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D.
Place both hands flat against the dashboard.
The answer is "Keep a tight grip on the steering wheel."
When a crash is unavoidable, the manual's first instruction is to keep a tight grip on the steering wheel so you can prepare to turn fast and try to control the vehicle. Shielding your face with arms and hands appears on the same list, but only as the last-resort action if all else fails. A driver who remembers the dramatic face-shield detail from the end of the list reaches for option B instead of the control step the manual puts first.
The traps in the wrong answers
B. Release the wheel and shield your face with your arms.
The manual mentions using arms and hands to protect the face, but only as a last resort if all else fails, not as the first instruction. This answer remembers the dramatic face-shield line at the end of the list and skips the tight-grip step the manual puts first.
C. Rest one hand on the horn to keep sounding it.
The manual's first instruction under 'If you are about to be hit' is to keep a tight grip on the steering wheel, not to rest a hand on the horn. Sounding the horn belongs to the earlier 'If a crash seems likely' list, before impact is imminent. This answer falls back on the driver-ed habit of leaning on the horn to warn others, treating the pre-crash warning step as the one to hold through the collision itself.
D. Place both hands flat against the dashboard.
Flat hands on the dashboard are not in the manual's instructions for the driver; the manual keeps the driver's hands on the wheel so you can steer through the impact. This answer borrows the passenger brace-for-impact pose from safety graphics and applies it to a driver the manual expects to keep steering.
This question tests your knowledge of Crash Procedures in North Carolina. Source: North Carolina Driver Handbook, "Chapter 4 - Your Driving, Crashes, If you are about to be hit," p.77..
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