A Texas school zone posts a regulatory sign showing a cell phone with a red slash across it. According to the manual, what does the sign prohibit inside the zone?
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A.
Talking on a cell phone during posted school hours only.
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B.
Answering calls without pulling to the side of the road.
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C.
Using a wireless communication device. Correct
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D.
Using a cell phone on any road within sight of the school.
The answer is "Using a wireless communication device."
The manual's entry for this sign reads that the use of a wireless communication device is prohibited in the school zone, so what the sign bans is the device, not one particular way of holding it. Texas law sets its own limits on that ban, in Transportation Code 545.425(b): it does not reach a driver whose vehicle is stopped or who is using a hands-free device. Those exceptions are covered with the phone rules; this question is about what the sign itself says.
The traps in the wrong answers
A. Talking on a cell phone during posted school hours only.
The manual ties the device ban to the sign itself, not to the flashing-yellow-light schedule that sets the school-zone speed limit. This answer confuses the reduced school-zone speed limit, which is in effect only while the yellow light flashes, with the separate wireless-device ban.
B. Answering calls without pulling to the side of the road.
The sign is not telling drivers where to take a call; it prohibits using the device while driving in the school zone. This answer applies the general safe-driving habit of pulling over to take a call to a sign that bans the use itself, not the location of it.
D. Using a cell phone on any road within sight of the school.
The prohibition is tied to the school zone the sign marks, not to how near the school you can see. This answer stretches a posted zone into a radius around the building.
This question tests your knowledge of Regulatory Signs in Texas. Source: Texas Driver Handbook, "Table 19: Regulatory and Warning Signs (Continued)," p.31; Texas Transportation Code 545.425(b)..
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