You are following a truck at night. What does the manual tell you to do with your headlights?
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A.
Turn off your headlights briefly whenever the truck driver brakes.
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B.
Dim your headlights, because bright lights reflect off the truck's large side mirrors. Correct
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C.
Use your high beams so the truck driver can see your vehicle better.
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D.
Flash your high beams once to alert the truck driver you are behind.
The answer is "Dim your headlights, because bright lights reflect off the truck's large side mirrors."
Dim your headlights when following a truck at night. Bright lights from behind reflect off the truck's large side mirrors and blind the driver ahead. Choice C reverses the rule: drivers apply the 'see and be seen' habit of running high beams on dark roads, missing the exception when you are close behind a truck, where the mirrors send those beams straight back into the truck driver's eyes.
The traps in the wrong answers
A. Turn off your headlights briefly whenever the truck driver brakes.
The manual does not tell you to cycle your headlights off in response to a truck's brake lights. This answer half-remembers the dim-headlights rule as flicking the lights off entirely and pins the timing to the truck's brake lights.
C. Use your high beams so the truck driver can see your vehicle better.
High beams reflect off the truck's mirrors and blind the driver. This answer applies the 'see and be seen' habit of running high beams on dark roads and forgets the exception when you are close behind a truck.
D. Flash your high beams once to alert the truck driver you are behind.
Flashing is the response to an oncoming driver who has not dimmed, not to a truck ahead of you. This answer reads the flash-to-warn cue as a generic 'notice me' signal, so extends it to announcing your presence to a truck ahead.
This question tests your knowledge of Sharing the Road in Pennsylvania. Source: Pennsylvania Driver Manual, "Sharing the Road with Trucks and Buses, Following a Truck," p.57..
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