Air bag seating — Louisiana Permit Test
Air bag seating on the Louisiana permit test — 3 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
Sit at least 10 inches away from a steering wheel that has an air bag; closer than that, the bag can explode into you.
The bag needs room to fill up before it reaches you. Too close, and it hits you while still bursting out.
Sit at least 10 inches away from the steering wheel equipped with an air bag - otherwise the bag can explode into you, causing serious harm.
If your steering wheel tilts, tilt it away from your head, preferably toward your chest.
A wheel aimed at your face sends the air bag at your head instead of your chest.
If you have a tilt function on the steering wheel, make sure the wheel is tilted away from the head (preferably toward the chest).
In pickups and sports cars with small or no rear seats, the passenger air bag switch is turned off so a child 12 or under can ride in the right front seat.
When there is no back seat to use, turning off the front bag keeps it from striking a small child.
The purpose of the switch in the off position is to disable the front passenger air bag to transport a child age 12 or under in the right front passenger seat.
On the test
How far from a steering wheel with an air bag should you sit, at least?
10 inches. The bag needs room to fill up before it reaches you. Too close, and it hits you while still bursting out. Class D & E Driver's Guide, p.41: “Sit at least 10 inches away from the steering wheel equipped with an air bag - otherwise the bag can explode into you, causing serious harm.”
How this works
Most practice tests hand you a bank of questions and leave the manual somewhere else. This one puts them together.
You read one law and the reason behind it, then answer a question on that law while it is still fresh. Get it right and you move on; get it wrong and you have found the gap while it is cheap to fix, not on the morning of the exam.
Learning one rule at a time, and proving it immediately, is what turns a manual you skimmed into something you actually know — and it makes studying feel like getting somewhere rather than like waiting to find out.
What it costs
- One payment, once — not a subscription. Nothing renews and there is nothing to cancel, for an exam you sit one time.
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- Paying opens the rest of the cards, unlimited full-length practice tests, and retests built from exactly the questions you got wrong.
- Every level up to Prepared — 3 tests passed in a row.
- Do the work, fail the real exam, and we refund you.
Where these come from
Every rule here is checked against Class D & E Driver's Guide, published by the Louisiana Department of Public Safety, and against the state code itself. Last checked 2026-10-04.
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/LA.pdf (Class D & E Driver's Guide, DPSMV2052 (R08/25), Louisiana Office of Motor Vehicles, retrieved 2026-09-14; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/LA.pages.txt (the plain pdftotext fixture every citation here was cut from and verified against; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/LA-exam.html (the OMV's Permits page, https://expresslane.la.gov/omv/drivers/personal-driver-s-licenses/permits/, archived 2026-10-04; the 40-question count)
- https://expresslane.la.gov/omv/resources/driver-manuals/
- https://expresslane.la.gov/omv/drivers/personal-driver-s-licenses/new-licenses/ (read 2026-10-04; "An 80% is the minimum passing score for the knowledge test.")