5 Ways to Avoid an Accident if Your Brakes Fail
Brake failure is a frightening and dangerous experience for any driver. In fact, according to a study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, between 4 and 13% of car accidents are likely to be caused by vehicle factors like brake failure or defects.
This makes one wonder: What should be done to avoid an accident should your breaks fail? While the odds of suddenly losing your braking performance are pretty low, it does happen to an unlucky few, and you should be prepared if you find yourself in such a situation.
This is why you should be aware of the appropriate emergency response steps you can take both before and during brake failure moments that can help substantially reduce your risk of actually ending up in a severe car accident.
Regularly Inspect Your Brakes
You don’t want the terror of brake failure happening to you or your loved ones. So, make it a habit to inspect your brake pads, rotors, fluids, and other components regularly as part of routine maintenance.
Waiting too long between comprehensive brake system checks dramatically increases the chances of failure. Be proactive and protect yourself and your passengers.
Most brake pads have built-in indicator mechanisms that produce a screeching sound when the pad thickness wears down to a concerning level. Pay attention to these signs when applying your brakes, and have a certified mechanic remove all wheels during oil changes to examine brake pads, rotors, calipers, hoses, and fluid levels.
Catch issues like contamination, leaks, cracking, imbalance, and uneven wear now before they leave you feeling helpless in an emergency. And stop worrying about the finances it will require; investing time and money in your vehicle’s preventive brake care is all the effort you need to stay safe on the road and have confidence during emergencies.
Understand Alternative Stopping Methods
Hopefully, you’ll never need to employ emergency braking techniques. But still, try to understand how to stop your car without power brakes in case disaster strikes.
Educate yourself thoroughly on alternatives like pumping non-powered brakes hard and fast to build pressure, downshifting gears in manual transmissions to use engine resistance, gently yet firmly pulling parking brakes to scrub speed, and scanning for escape routes like side roads or driveways to coast onto.
Visualizing and mentally rehearsing these before crisis strikes allows you to react correctly rather than panic. At the moment when your vehicle’s brakes fail, you would need to rely on your intuition to be able to handle the situation and protect yourself and your passengers. So, consider scheduling practice sessions under low-risk conditions until responding becomes muscle memory.
Remain Calm and Avoid Panic-braking
Your first instinct when brakes fail is to press the pedal harder in a panic as if more pressure will help. But you have to fight this urge with all your mental strength!
Stomping repeatedly on non-functional brakes only makes regaining control more difficult and poses a massive risk to your passengers. If you feel braking power disappear, relax your leg muscles and remove your foot while steering in a straight line. If you’re really tensed, then take a deep breath to calm your nerves.
Panicked grabbing and pumping can jam wheels, which can create unrecoverable skids. By staying calm, you can make better level-headed decisions that will help you direct attention to the surrounding traffic scenario and the path ahead of you rather than being distracted by the non-responsive brake pedal, which cannot be influenced at this point.
So, if you eventually find yourself in a situation where your breaks fail, understand that calmness is all you need to navigate through the incident. Panic will do you no good and will, in fact, push you to make irrational decisions that may lead to an accident.
Create Distance from Other Vehicles
Maintaining substantial distance between vehicles prevents collisions, especially when brakes fail. However, only a few drivers are diligent about spacing over time. A safe cushion of open roads ahead and behind is vital in any situation, particularly in brake emergencies.
In fact, according to the National Transportation Safety Board, one second of warning time is enough to prevent about 90 percent of rear-end collisions. Having this extra time allows you to react better and respond.
So, if you detect that your brakes are failing, routinely scan farther down the road to recognize necessary slowdowns sooner, even if it means sacrificing momentum. At a minimum, stay three car lengths behind other drivers to purchase critical seconds to employ the backup stopping methods we discussed earlier (if needed).
If traffic is too dense for proper spacing, remain poised to carefully change lanes at even a hint of brake problems. This way, you’ll protect yourself and others on the road and eventually prevent an accident.
Know What to Do After an Incident
If you find yourself in a worst-case scenario where your breaks fail while you’re on the road, pull over as soon as it’s safe and call for roadside assistance.
Don’t continue driving without having a mechanic check for damage or faulty parts that could have caused the failure. Address any issues before risking your safety or that of your passengers.
If things get worse, and your vehicle’s brake failure results in a crash or vehicle damage, know the several post-incident actions to take to properly document the failure, assist any crash victims, reduce financial impacts, and prevent future occurrences.
According to Neufeld, Kleinberg, and Pinkiert, PA, a renowned group of Miami car accident lawyers, knowing what to do immediately after a car accident (perhaps due to your failed brakes) can positively impact the outcome of legal proceedings and insurance claims.
Wrapping Up
Avoiding an accident because of your vehicle’s brakes failing requires more from you. It requires you to be proactive, intuitively reactive, and aware of what you must do should things get out of hand. So, leverage the tips here and keep yourself and fellow motorists out of harm’s way.
