Animal hazards — Virginia Permit Test
Animal hazards on the Virginia permit test — 4 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
If a collision with a deer or other large animal cannot be avoided, do not swerve: brake firmly, stay in your lane and come to a controlled stop.
Swerving puts you into a tree or into oncoming traffic, both worse than the animal.
Be alert for large animals at dusk and dawn, especially in the fall.
Those are the hours they move, and the hours you can see least.
If you hit a large animal, report it to law enforcement.
An injured animal left in the road is the next driver's problem.
Use your horn to try to scare a large animal away from the road.
It is the one tool you have that reaches the animal before your car does.
On the test
What should you do if hitting a large animal is unavoidable?
Brake firmly and stay in your lane. Swerving puts you into a tree or into oncoming traffic, both worse than the animal.
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.
Where these come from
Every rule here is checked against Virginia Driver's Manual, published by the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, and against the state code itself. Last checked 2026-09-06.