North Carolina driving lesson · Defensive Driving & Hazards
Breakdowns, crashes & your duties afterward
A 4-minute lesson from the North Carolina course. Read the rules and examples, follow the handbook page references, and check your understanding before you move on.
Sometimes a crash can't be avoided, but how you react can reduce the damage. Afterward, NC law requires you to stop, help, exchange information and report certain crashes.
If your vehicle breaks down:
Move completely onto the shoulder
Leave by the passenger side; don't let passengers stay inside
Stand off the road, away from the vehicle, not in front or behind it
For help, tie a white cloth to the left door handle or aerial and raise the hood
At night, use parking lights or flashers; keep flashlights or flares in the car
If the crash is on a main lane, ramp, shoulder or median and no one is hurt or killed, move each vehicle out of the travel lane onto the shoulder if it can be driven safely under its own power.
Failing to report can bring prosecution and license suspension. Also report crashes to your insurer; some crashes require filing proof of liability insurance on DMV forms.
You rear-end a car on an interstate ramp; nobody is hurt and both cars run fine. Move both cars onto the shoulder, exchange information, and report it to law enforcement if total damage appears to be $1,000 or more.
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.
If your vehicle breaks down, how should you and your passengers exit?
By the passenger side, away from traffic
By the driver's side, into the travel lane
Stay inside with the doors locked
By whichever door is closest
Answer: By the passenger side, away from traffic
Exit the vehicle by the passenger side, and do not allow passengers to remain in the vehicle.
You are about to be hit from the rear and there are no vehicles in front of you. What should you do first?
Brake hard and hold it
Press the accelerator and move away
Turn sharply onto the shoulder
Hold your speed and brace yourself
Answer: Press the accelerator and move away
If about to be hit from the rear with no vehicles ahead, press the accelerator and move away, be ready to brake, brace yourself and press your head against the head rest.
After a crash in a main travel lane with no injuries, where both cars can still be driven safely, what should happen?
Leave them until police arrive
Move them into the median
Move them onto the shoulder
Leave them if damage is under $1,000
Answer: Move them onto the shoulder
If there are no injuries or fatalities, each vehicle should be moved out of the travel lane onto the shoulder if it can be driven safely under its own power.