While driving in winter, you pass a triangular warning sign with a red border showing a symbol of a car with wavy lines beneath its wheels, and a text plate underneath reading 'ICE'. According to the Highway Code's guidance on adverse weather, how should this sign change your driving, and why?
- It only affects other drivers, since modern tyres grip ice normally and stopping distances on ice are unaffected compared with a dry road
- It means the road is officially closed to all traffic until it has been gritted, so you should turn around and find another route
- It means you should brake hard and early well before any hazard, since firm, decisive braking is the safest way to stop a car on an icy surface
- It means you should slow down, leave a much bigger gap from the vehicle in front since stopping distances can be up to ten times greater than on a dry road, and avoid sudden steering, braking or accelerating, which could cause a skid
Why D? And why not the others?
Correct answer: D. It means you should slow down, leave a much bigger gap from the vehicle in front since stopping distances can be up to ten times greater than on a dry road, and avoid sudden steering, braking or accelerating, which could cause a skid
The Highway Code's guidance on driving in adverse weather warns that on icy or snowy roads a driver should keep well back from the vehicle in front because stopping distances can be up to ten times greater than on a dry road, and separately advises driving extremely carefully and avoiding sudden actions, since these could cause a loss of control. Slowing down, increasing following distance and smoothing out steering, braking and acceleration inputs is therefore the correct response to this sign. The option claiming tyres grip ice normally and stopping distances are unaffected directly contradicts this guidance and would leave a driver dangerously close to the vehicle ahead. The option asserting the road is officially closed invents a consequence the sign does not carry; a warning sign alerts drivers to a hazard, it does not itself close a road. The option recommending hard, early braking is actually the opposite of safe practice on ice, since sudden or firm braking is exactly the kind of sudden action that can break traction and cause a skid; smooth, gentle inputs are what the guidance actually recommends.
Source: The Highway Code — Driving in adverse weather conditions, Rules 230-231 (GOV.UK)