How to Stop A Car With No Brakes

If you can stop a car with no brakes, you just might head off a nasty accident. You may or may not have advanced warning that your brakes will fail; so prepare yourself for such an emergency by following the steps below.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

1. Stay calm. A cool demeanor is your most valuable tool in any crisis.

2. Shift to the lowest gear. This works best with a manual transmission; but you can get some braking power from an automatic transmission as well.

3. Put on your hazard lights. Let other drivers know that you have a problem. Honk the horn as you come up on other drivers.

4. Pump the regular brakes. You may be able to slow down your car a little bit, enough to change a serious accident into a minor one.

5. Try the emergency brake. Be careful doing this. You might lock the wheels and put your car into a skid.

6. Steer your car toward a safe area. If you can head uphill without endangering other drivers or pedestrians, do so. Otherwise, steer toward a good place to crash.

Tips & Warnings

• If you can’t get the car into a lower gear, put it in neutral. This disengages the transmission and may allow you to force the transmission to a lower gear.
• If you're going to crash into another car try to hit bumper to bumper or side to side. Although they're still plenty dangerous, these types of crashes are slightly less so than a T-bone collision. If you have a choice between a head-on collision and a rear-end collision, take the rear-end collision.
• Wear your seatbelt while driving. Proper restraints will help you walk away from a crash caused by brake failure.

[Banstaman]

on 8/20/2007 try driving in an "s" pattern, and over rough roads to slow down the car faster.