Losing control of your vehicle’s brakes can be scary. Due to adrenaline, no one can predict how they would react in that situation. So what do you do if your brake fails? Here is a rundown of what you can do, and we hope you never have to use it.
Stay calm
This may be difficult to hea,r but it is the first thing you should do if you notice something’s wrong with your vehicle. Calming down lets you think with a clear head on the next steps to take. Regardless of the outcome, you can always contact a Dayton, Ohio, motorcycle accident lawyer to find out if you can get compensated for the accident.
Hit the brakes
After regulating your emotions, try to hit the brakes again to get a reaction. Most vehicles today have a dual braking system. This simply means that the front wheels and the back wheels have independent brakes. Your car’s braking system may still have some juice left on the other wheels. Apply pressure on the brake pedal and wait for it to respond. If it does, it may not stop immediately, but you’ll get enough juice to reduce any impact.
Emergency braking
If the entire hydraulic braking system fails to work, all hope is not lost. You still have another option: try to stop the car. Your car often comes with an emergency brake. It is also known as the parking brake or handbrake because drivers use it to keep their cars stable when parked.
Press the button at the top of the brake and pull it up slowly. It may be able to help stop the bar after a few minutes. There is another option to try if this doesn’t work.
Change gears
Some mechanics recommend changing gears to slow the act down before it comes to a final stop. The process differs for manual and automatic cars. For manual cars, you’ll need to change gears often to reduce the speed. Meanwhile, automatic cars require leaving the accelerator to reduce the speed. If a car has paddle shifters, you can also use them to change your car from automatic to manual transmission. This way, you can put it on manual transmission and downshift the gears until you reach the lowest one.
Move to safety
While the car may not come to a complete stop, these steps should help you get close enough. Once you have, use your signals to alert other drivers and get off the road safely. Move to the slower lane first before trying to stop the car. When you’re safely out of oncoming traffic, use your hazard lights and other signs to alert others and contact a mechanic.
Keep the car running
If the car hasn’t stopped fully, don’t turn off the engine. Make sure it stays on until you have stopped completely. The reason is that the ignition keeps your power steering smooth. Without it, the steering will stiffen, and you will lose all control of the car. So wait until it stops and then turn it off.