You are following a tractor-trailer and want to pass. What does the manual say to do first?
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A.
Move to the shoulder for a wider view of the road ahead
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B.
Observe the truck's turn signals before attempting to pass Correct
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C.
Blow your horn twice to alert the truck driver
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D.
Flash your headlights to signal your intent to pass
The answer is "Observe the truck's turn signals before attempting to pass"
Large trucks swing wide, and a driver setting up a right turn may drift left first, so the manual tells you to read the truck's turn signals before you commit to a pass. The 'horn twice' trap pulls in the general passing procedure printed elsewhere in the manual, where alerting a slower vehicle is part of the sequence, but that step does not replace the turn-signal check a truck needs.
The traps in the wrong answers
A. Move to the shoulder for a wider view of the road ahead
The manual never asks a passing driver to use the shoulder as a lookout, and doing so puts you outside a travel lane. This answer borrows a roadside-stop tactic for visibility and applies it to a moving pass, treating the shoulder as an extra lane when the rules of the road do not allow driving there.
C. Blow your horn twice to alert the truck driver
The truck-specific rule is to check turn signals; horn use belongs to the general passing procedure. This answer reaches for the horn-tap step from the general open-road passing procedure taught elsewhere in the manual, where signaling the vehicle ahead is one of the actions, and slots it in ahead of the turn-signal check trucks require.
D. Flash your headlights to signal your intent to pass
Headlight flashing is a driver custom, not the check the manual requires before passing a truck. This answer picks up the flash-to-pass courtesy some highway drivers use behind slow traffic and treats it as an official step, when the manual never lists headlight flashing as part of the procedure.
This question tests your knowledge of Sharing the Road in North Carolina. Source: North Carolina Driver Handbook, "Trucks and Other Vehicles," p.91..
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