Cut Overtaking Off At The Pass... Quiz

Answer: FALSE

In the USA alone, more than two million collisions involving vehicles and animals take place each year. Tempting though it may be to swerve, it could result in more severe injury to you - or another road user if you struck another vehicle.

The advice from insurance professionals is to keep your vehicle in the same direction and brake firmly, but carefully.

In the USA in 2018, 190 people died when a car struck an animal. In that same year, more than 7,400 died when their car struck a fixed object. Source: U.S. Department of Transportation's Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS).

Answer: Check the road is clear behind and well past the car and manoeuvre at your normal speed

You should never exceed the speed limit when overtaking.

Never overtake where you cannot see it is safe. Never overtake on the brow of a hill, on a bend, approaching a school or approaching a junction or traffic signal.

Drive smoothly, if you are genuinely faster, then you should not need to speed up. Never pull straight in. Check your mirrors to see where the slow vehicle is and pull in when clear. Always return to the nearside lane after overtaking, even on a motorway, but never so abruptly it would cause problems for the other driver.

Answer: Smoothly ease off the throttle/accelerator and slow to a stop

Sharp braking will cause your car to move in the direction of the punctured tyre. That could be to the side, or across the centre line into the path of an oncoming vehicle.

Answer: Close to the centre line with wheels pointed straight ahead

I should not need to tell you that you should display your turn indicators while attempting this manoeuvre.

You should stop with the wheels straight in the direction of travel. In that way, if your vehicle is struck from behind it will be shunted straight down the empty lane in front of you.

If your wheels are turned in the direction you intend to go and your car is struck from behind, you will be shunted across the centre line and into the path of the vehicles you were waiting for. This, sadly, had led to fatal collisions.

If your wheels are pointed towards the roadside and your car is struck from behind, it will be shunted into whatever hazard may be there - including that 200 foot cliff...aghhhhh

If you are tight to the verge, you will not leave enough room for vehicles from behind to pass safely. At the very least, it will cause annoyance or provocation to the drivers that cannot pass. It might also lead to vehicles behind assuming yoo were stopping at the side of the road and they will try to pass just as your are making your turn.

Answer: Slowly in as high a gear as possible

The Automobile Association in the UK advises starting off slowly in second gear for additional traction. After that keep the revs and gears high, but the speed down.

If driving down a hill, lose speed beforehand and use a low gear to avoid braking. Always be gentle with brakes and accelerator while driving in snow.

Answer: 315 feet (96m)

If you have picked up on the ethos behind this quiz you will probably have chosen the longest distance, even if you did not know it beforehand!

The distance of 96m is 24 car-lengths. According to the Automobile Association, a driver will typically travel for 21 metres while thinking about braking, and a further 75 metres while braking.

To put it another way, at 70mph the braking time is 102 feet per second, so it takes just over three seconds from seeing a danger at 70mph to coming to a halt.

These figures are for alert drivers on a good, dry road. The distance required to stop will be greater on a wet road, or if tyres and brakes are not in top order.

Answer: TRUE

It is not an easy call to make, but the reasoning is justified by one, of many, actual events. On a motorway in the west of England a traffic police car stopped behind a broken down car on the hard shoulder. The cops got everyone across the barrier away from the car.

A few minutes later, a heavy lorry left its lane and crashed into both cars - the driver apparently having fallen asleep. Multiple causalities were probably saved that day.

This is UK police advice: "Leave the vehicle by the left-hand door and ensure your passengers do the same. You must leave any animals in the vehicle or, in an emergency, keep them under proper control on the verge. Never attempt to place a warning triangle on a motorway....Ensure that passengers keep away from the carriageway and hard shoulder, and that children are kept under control."

There is a caveat in that if you fear any personal danger, you might feel safer sitting in the nearside of the car.

Incidentally, if you have ever noticed that experienced police officers stop with their vehicle slanted, or front wheels turned to the side of the road, that is so their car will be shunted off the road and not forward if struck from behind.

Answer: The one that holds the steering wheel

Yes, it is a bad joke, but the most important contributor to road safety in any vehicle is...the driver.

Obeying the motoring laws; and ensuring your vehicle is well-maintained are vital, of course, but the single most important element is the driver.

In most countries, more people die in road traffic collisions in a year than are murdered.

In the USA alone, around 38,000 people die in traffic collisions each year. About 19,000 die through murder.

In 2016,there were 1.35m million deaths worldwide. Over 90 per cent of fatal traffic collisions are caused by a driver making a mistake. These are not "accidents", people!

Answer: False

No, no, no, mash that brake pedal to the floor through the shuddering - it tells you the ASB system is working. If you ease off, you will lose braking power.

Answer: True

It is not against the law - but it is totally ill-advised, and, frankly, why would you want to?.

According to the Royal Automobile Club (RAC) it is not illegal to drive with bare feet on the pedals - or even flipflops, but you might be putting yourself or other road users at risk if you cannot drive safely - and that is illegal.

The Driving Standards Agency puts it succinctly: "suitable shoes are particularly important behind the wheel. We would not recommend driving barefoot because you don't have the same braking force with bare feet as you do with shoes on."