North Carolina DMV Practice Test

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Prepare for the North Carolina DMV Test with flashcards and multiple-choice questions. Each question includes hints and explanations to help you succeed. Start your journey towards passing with confidence.

Each practice test/flash card set has 50 randomly selected questions from a bank of over 500. You'll get a new set of questions each time!

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If your brakes fail, what should you do?

Shift into a lower gear and use your emergency brake
Activate your hazard lights
Steer into a ditch
Both A and B

The correct answer is: Shift into a lower gear and use your emergency brake

When faced with brake failure, shifting into a lower gear is an important strategy as it allows the engine to help slow down the vehicle through engine braking. This reduces reliance solely on the brakes and can help you decrease your speed more effectively. Using the emergency brake is also crucial, as it serves as an additional braking system, even though it should be used cautiously to avoid locking the rear wheels and causing a loss of control. Activating your hazard lights is important for alerting other drivers to your situation, which can help prevent accidents as you take action to bring your vehicle to a stop. Although this option is valuable for safety reasons, it does not directly help with slowing down the vehicle. Steering into a ditch may seem like a potential option in an extreme situation, but it can be risky and is not always advisable as it may lead to further loss of control or cause an accident. Combining the actions of shifting to a lower gear and using the emergency brake effectively addresses both the immediate need for deceleration and ensuring you maintain control of the vehicle.