Without cheating, what do you think the answer to this theory test question is?

[Trynamakeadollar]

I got it wrong the first time.

When you enter a tunnel you are supposed to retune your radio, the operators of the tunnel can give instructions telling you to continue or to stop and instructions to other drivers.

Tunnels these days have sprinklers and mist systems.

A lot was learned from the Mont Blanc disaster.

You can buy a Kidde fire extinguisher on Amazon for £15. We’ve used Kidde fire extinguishers for decades at work (aviation) so it’s a reasonable and well respected brand. If you can afford to run a car, you can afford to put a fire extinguisher in it. Everyone who doesn’t have one should go and buy one! You never know when you might need it.

As for exploding - let me say it again: a car fire is unlikely to cause an immediate explosion that would destroy a tunnel. It would certainly, if left to burn in there, cause sufficient heat and flames that any other cars nearby could also catch fire. Get it out if you can! This is why they are asking this sort of stuff on an exam. Most people’s instincts are driven by what they are familiar with, and the general public’s perceptions of a car fire are based on what they’ve seen on film, ie movies which play for thrills. The people setting these exams are guided by their own knowledge base which is derived from many years of research and learning as to what the best way to handle a particular situation is. The movies are generally wrong, the scientists are generally right.

Hang on, re-tune your radio? How do you know what frequency to tune it into?

I remember my friend telling me about this one whilst she was studying for her theory when we were at school. It's drive out of the tunnel in your fireball of a car like you're Ghost Rider.

I wish you were an actual theory test question setter, it would be a lot of fun learning the answers.

Your first two seem straightforward enough, I presume you quickly put on a Zebra Suit to blend in, and for the spider you'd put your hazard warning lights on & slow down to 10mph while dealing with the situation. Intrigued what the answer is to the helium balloon question though?

Drive it out if it’s safe to do so..seems obvious to me

Pull over and walk to emergency phone.

A car on fire is hardly safe to drive.

I've been in a car that was on fire.

It was something in the engine bay, and DP was driving. There was nowhere safe to stop immediately, and as long as the car was moving the flames stayed low; every time we slowed down, the flames were leaping up visible. One chap helpfully leaned out of his window at some point to yell, "Your car's on fire!" (we'd noticed, but I appreciate his care and attention).

As we were driving towards somewhere we could pull over and deal with it, we planned our actions — I would jump out and run to the boot to get the fire extinguisher, DP would jump out and run to the front to open the bonnet.

It all went smoothly, fire was extinguished, no significant damage to the car, no injuries to anyone, no disruption or obstruction for other traffic (other than the surprise of seeing someone driving along in a burning car). If we had been in a tunnel, it's probably better for everyone that we got somewhere safe to extinguish the small fire, rather than immediately stopping the car causing an obstruction, filling the tunnel with smoke and potentially letting a major incident happen.

Think the clue to to right answer is the "if it is safe to do so" bit. Admittedly it's been a long time since I did my theory but there's a tip tip for you!!

I think the reality is that most people would stop abd get out as they would determine it not safe driving a car on fire.

Though there may be some on this thread that will heroic drive it out determined to do the correct way. Least they when it turns out the misjudged the 'safe to do so' part, and the car explodes, causing as much damage as it would leaving it where it was, they will have died a hero. ❤

😀

@Twoshoesnewshoes what are the options for the Zebra and Helium balloon ones?

Having watched the huge conflagration when DH's car caught fire, then I'd have said that driving it out of the tunnel if you possibly can is by far the safest thing to do.

😁 that's tests and well, life all over isn't it?
There's the right answer in theory and then there's what you'd actually do in that moment.

I knew that cars were safe and unlikely to explode so can I ask, if the fire reaches the gas tank, does that just make a bigger fire rather than an explosion, then?

The question literally says 'if it is safe to do so'.

Cars take a couple of minutes for the fire to really get going, at least DH's did, so that would give you time to drive as far as possible towards the tunnel exit before it became unsafe.

Having said that, if you've only just driven into a long tunnel, what then - reverse out the way you came in?

Drive out the tunnel if safe to do so?

I've already seen the answer but mine would have been

e) It depends

That's why I hate multi choice questions where they are too wishy washy

And consume oxygen... a big fire in a tunnel would be horrendous.

My brother lives beside a shopping centre close to a main city ring road. A woman’s car burst into flames on the ring road where she took the slip exit, and drove the flaming car into the shopping centre’s multi story car park. This was about 3 years ago and the shopping centre isn’t long reopened. Huge damage. (Woman was ok I believe)

Any local station, actually I'm not sure what happens with DAB.

But you know you can set your car radio to interrupt with local road news. I tend to avoid tunnels but you used to lose the signal in a tunnel so you would retune to anything, if you can hear it in the tunnel they can put announcements out.

“Think the clue to to right answer is the "if it is safe to do so" bit. Admittedly it's been a long time since I did my theory but there's a tip tip for you!!”

Another tip is that no matter how often they give it as an option, the answer is never “have an alcoholic drink to steady your nerves”.
(They may have updated the test since I took it, but I wondered if anyone ever really chose that as an answer).

Bit of an odd question really, very niche, and, possibly a bit out of date.

I drive an electric car, if its on fire, its not a bit of oil or something combustible that's touched a hot part of the engine block, it's probably the lithium battery.

Yeah, not hanging around to find out, I've seen how quickly they can go up....

I was annoyed by this too. The correct answer is drive out of the tunnel if it's safe to do so, which I think is bullshit because if i'm in a car that's on fire then every instinct in me says that's not safe? I argued this with my husband who sent me a Wikipedia article about a lorry driver so abandoned the vehicle on fire in the tunnel and a bunch of people died 😕

Pull up and walk to phone.

Having any kind of problem in a tunnel is a potential nightmare. Even just a stalled engine, or finding yourself with an empty fuel tank is far more dangerous than on an open road.
As far as I can remember, even on motorways in tunnels there is nowhere to pull up nor to park away from the traffic - nowhere to escape from the traffic. So in case of any trouble with the car the best bet is to get the car out of the tunnel - if you can and if the tunnel is not too long. If it's not possible, all you can do is to stop the engine, put it in gear, leave lights on, drop the car where it is and get away from the car as far as possible in the direction of the traffic. No matter how visible is your stationary car, statistically there is bound to be sooner or later an idiotic driver going too fast that is going to ram you car, and you don't want to be nearby when it happens.
Most important is to not panic. Also, having high-viz jackets and flame extinguishers always ready within easy reach also helps ...
My 2 cents.

Missing context - we drove through some really long tunnels in Norway a few years ago.

I think I would pull up to the side, get out and go to the nearest telephone.

In the future, it will be AI cars - so the question is - what would the computer decide to do?