Kansas driving lesson · Special Driving Situations
Night driving and flooded roads
A 3-minute lesson from the Kansas course. Read the rules and examples, follow the handbook page references, and check your understanding before you move on.
At night your headlights limit how far you can see, so you need to use them well and avoid being blinded by others. Flooded roads are a different trap: water hides how deep it is and what's under it.
Know the rule
Use your high beams whenever there are no oncoming vehicles. High beams let you see twice as far as low beams.
If an oncoming driver keeps high beams on, flash your headlights once quickly. If they still don't dim, look toward the right side of the road. Never keep your brights on to 'get back' at them.
Flash floods can come rapidly and unexpectedly, within minutes or hours of heavy rain. Be cautious at night, in storm season and wherever flooding is common.
After a thunderstorm you reach a low spot where water covers the road. It looks only a few inches deep. Don't try it: 6 inches can stall your car, and the road underneath may be washed out. Turn around.
Check your understanding
Read the question, decide on an answer, then open it to check the explanation. These are Roadwise study questions based on the source handbook.
When should you dim your high beams for an oncoming vehicle?
About one block from the oncoming vehicle
Only after they pass you
Only within 50 feet
Only if they flash their lights first
Answer: About one block from the oncoming vehicle
Dim your high beams when you are within about a block of an oncoming vehicle to avoid blinding them.