You pull off onto the shoulder of a rural highway at night with a flat tire. What does the manual tell you to do with your lights while the vehicle is parked?
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A.
Turn on your emergency flashers and turn off your headlights Correct
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B.
Turn on the interior dome light so passing drivers can spot the car
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C.
Leave your headlights on so oncoming traffic can see the vehicle
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D.
Switch on the high beams as a warning signal to approaching traffic
The answer is "Turn on your emergency flashers and turn off your headlights"
The night-driving section of the manual gives two matching rules for a vehicle parked on or along a highway: turn the emergency flashers on, and turn the headlights off. Flashers mark a stopped vehicle without blinding anyone. Choice C is the trap. Leaving the headlights on sounds like the safe move a driver would fall back on from the general 'stay visible' instinct built up during driving, but the manual singles out parked headlights as a hazard that blinds oncoming drivers.
The traps in the wrong answers
B. Turn on the interior dome light so passing drivers can spot the car
The manual names emergency flashers, not the dome light, as the marker for a vehicle parked on a highway. This answer substitutes a dome-light workaround the manual never mentions for the flashers the rule actually names.
C. Leave your headlights on so oncoming traffic can see the vehicle
The manual explicitly names parked headlights as a blinding hazard for oncoming drivers, not a warning signal. This answer reaches for the 'stay visible' habit that works while driving and applies it to a parked car, though the manual singles out parked headlights as blinding oncoming drivers.
D. Switch on the high beams as a warning signal to approaching traffic
High beams are used on the open road when no vehicle is ahead, not on a parked car; the parking rule turns headlights off entirely. This answer carries the open-road high-beam habit into a scenario where the manual says the headlights should be off entirely.
This question tests your knowledge of Parking in North Carolina. Source: North Carolina Driver Handbook, "Night Driving, Tips for nighttime driving," p.71..
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