How to stop a vehicle if brake fails while driving

[Londoner]

How to stop a vehicle if brake fails while driving

We have all heard from the news about brake failures of Toyota Cars and the sad and tragic end of four people on American high way. Theoretically you should be able to sop your car in time if you react in time by using hand brake as well as putting the engine off and put the gear in reverse. However when people learn to drive, they are not taught how to react in the case of brake failure emergency. The four Americans had time enough to stop their car if the driver had been trained how to react in the case of brake failures. They sent SOS with a mobile phone.

Actually brake failures had twice happened to me with my van. The first time I got almost heart attack but the second time I was ready for it. But luckily each time I was driving slowly. On the first time if I had been driving on a motorway and had to stop because of unexpected traffic jam I would have caused a serious accident for sure. The brake fault with my van is the way the brake assisted mechanically, which is with a rotary air pump. Each time, in my case, this pump failed and had to be replaced. You still can take brake by pressing very hard if you expect it. But if you don't know anything and unexpectedly your brake goes hard, you could cause serious accidents. Still the brake is not safe. Because when the pump fails, it takes time to take brake completely.

[eg0u61c9]

How to stop a vehicle if brake fails while driving

We have all heard from the news about brake failures of Toyota Cars and the sad and tragic end of four people on American high way. Theoretically you should be able to sop your car in time if you react in time by using hand brake as well as putting the engine off and put the gear in reverse. However when people learn to drive, they are not taught how to react in the case of brake failure emergency. The four Americans had time enough to stop their car if the driver had been trained how to react in the case of brake failures. They sent SOS with a mobile phone.

Interesting and thanks for the tip, I got my license 6 month ago and i was never taught about brake failure emergency!

[Kulka]

i have my driving licence for many years - i suppose more of you here were little kids when i passed my exams. but it never happened to me as well, maybe because i always had cheap, old cars - not these expensive japanesse . the best car i had was volkswagen passat - 1992, combi - but believe me this car was like a tank - very good one.
by the way - i love driving! i started when i was 8 or 9 on trucks, coz my mother worked in transport company and there was one guy working there as a truck driver and he was teaching me about driving.
few years ago i went by car to supermarket. when i finished shopping and went to car park, one guy came to me and told me i have puncure in back tire. he though i would ask him to change the weel and pay him for that. it was hot summer and i was dressed all in white clothes. i said thank you to him and i changed the wheel withing 6 minutes and i didnt get my clothes dirty. you should see this guy's face, when he was watching me.

[Londoner]

i have my driving licence for many years - i suppose more of you here were little kids when i passed my exams. but it never happened to me as well, maybe because i always had cheap, old cars - not these expensive japanesse . the best car i had was volkswagen passat - 1992, combi - but believe me this car was like a tank - very good one.
by the way - i love driving! i started when i was 8 or 9 on trucks, coz my mother worked in transport company and there was one guy working there as a truck driver and he was teaching me about driving.
few years ago i went by car to supermarket. when i finished shopping and went to car park, one guy came to me and told me i have puncure in back tire. he though i would ask him to change the weel and pay him for that. it was hot summer and i was dressed all in white clothes. i said thank you to him and i changed the wheel withing 6 minutes and i didnt get my clothes dirty. you should see this guy's face, when he was watching me.

I bet on my life some how he punctured your tyre on the hope to make a quick buck.

[Londoner]

How to stop a vehicle if brake fails while driving

We have all heard from the news about brake failures of Toyota Cars and the sad and tragic end of four people on American high way. Theoretically you should be able to sop your car in time if you react in time by using hand brake as well as putting the engine off and put the gear in reverse. However when people learn to drive, they are not taught how to react in the case of brake failure emergency. The four Americans had time enough to stop their car if the driver had been trained how to react in the case of brake failures. They sent SOS with a mobile phone.

Interesting and thanks for the tip, I got my license 6 month ago and i was never taught about brake failure emergency!

Heaven forbids it, if ever any one faced with such emergency, theoreically, he or she should follow this procedure: 1- Declutch to disengage the engine, 2- Switch off the engine, 3- Reclutch immediately gradually, 4- At the same time work on the hand brake.
On the other hand, if it is possible to change the gear to reverse while driving, it should stop the vehicle better than the brake.

[Londoner]

The following is a reply to this thread from another site. I thought to put it her because it has a lot of useful information:

Re: How to stop a vehicle if brake fails while driving
you certainly lead an exciting life. i also have had two brake failures while on the road. in your case you still had the same brakes but without power assistance. in my case the pedal went to the floor - this was in the old days before dual circuit braking systems - i had to rely entirely on the handbrake on one occasion. the other time was while i was testing brakes on an empty road...
it is worth noting that cruising with the engine off will have the same result on a vehicle's brakes as when your vacuum pump failed...

changing gear is a good way to slow down instead of using the brakes. because of the synchrmesh action of the gearbox it is possible much of the time to change down a couple of speeds at a time to obtain worthwhile engine braking. it is almost impossible to select reverse gear if the car has much forward speed.

applying the handbrake in an emergency is ok too, except handbrakes aren't usually much good for anything but parking. it is worth noting that on most cars the gearlever and handbrake are quite close together and must be used with the same hand. in an emergency one has to be used and the other forgotten about for a time...

the tragic brake failure in the states might have involved an automatic transmission car - i don't think it mentioned it on the news. this would have prevented changing down being of much use... mechanically operated parking brakes can be used in an emergency, but mechanical parking brakes are becoming fewer and many new cars have electrically applied parking brakes, which i know nothing about, but would like to bet are not usable as an emergency brake?
people faced with an emergency often panic and forget to think. those people called for help by mobile phone. as you say that means there wasn't much of an emergency and surely they could have done something in the available time... i wasn't there and i didn't know the people involved, but i would like to give them a little credit as fairly intelligent people by not condemning them until i know more about what happened - news stories only ever tell half a story because the important detail would spoil the sensationalism... chances are that faced with a serious collision those folk did all they could at that time...