Life saving driving tips

I saw a news report today related to a school bus. The driver of the bus
had a perfect driving record. He ran thru a stop light and caused a very
very serious accident. The news reporter was not able to determine why the
driver failed to stop at the light. Some people speculated that the gas
pedal stuck or that his brakes failed to work.

I realize that most people that subscribe to this newsgroup probably
already knows these secrets. Even if you do know these secrets, please
make sure that everyone in your family is informed of these secrets. I've
talked to several people and only one person knew both secrets.

The first secret:
If your brakes stop working, remove your foot from the gas pedal. Place
the gear shift in neutral. Use your signal light to let the driver behind
you know that you are going to turn right. Drift off the road. Use the
emerg. brakes to stop.

If your gas pedal sticks--follow the advice above. However, you should use
your regular brakes to come to a stop.

Don't do what the bus driver probably done which was to crash the vehicle
in order to bring it to a stop.

If anyone wants to comment--feel free to do so.

 

You might want to just turn off the damn engine, instead of taking your
advice, and slipping a full throttled engine into NEUTRAL!

 

Turning off the engine may deactivate the power steering and vacuum assisted
brakes.

 

and depending on wheel angle and how flustered you are, it could lock
the wheel

 

UPDATE:
My advice only applies to cars, SUVs, pickups and any vans. It does NOT
apply to dump trucks or tractor trailors carrying full loads going down a
grade. If you own or drive such a vehicle--ignore my advice and get your
advice from experts in that field. I have no experience related to driving
fully loaded large trucks traveling down grades. I only wish that the
school bus driver mentioned above knew the tips that I mentioned. I don't
know why everyone is not required to learn these two tips in order to get
a driver's license.

 

At least the bus driver had a safe driving record. A local news did an
expose of LA bus drivers and found that many of them are convicted
drunk drivers with suspended licenses.

 

These two scenarios are easily checked. Either one of these failures do
not miraculously fix themselves during an accident.

Secrets???? Why do you call them secrets? There is nothing about being
a safe driver that is a secret.

This is taught at all driver safety classes.

The advice should not be the same. You should not shift into neutral as
you might damage your engine. Just hit the brakes. It may take longer,
but the car will eventually stop.

Again, blind speculation with no basis on fact is plain stupid.

 

gee- sorry i ran over ya. coulda stopped sooner but i was afraid of
blowing up my engine!

put it in neutral, and let the rev limiter do its thing.

 

Alex,
You made some excellent points. You are right--perhaps I should not have
used the term "secrets". Whenever there is a serious accident like the bus
crash--it's fairly common for people to speculate as to the cause of the
accident. For example, if there was a major wind storm, and you saw three
tractor trailors that were lying on their sides--I have a feeling that the
typical driver that passed the trucks would speculate that the wind caused
the trucks to be lying on their sides.

 

Jason wrote:

Best advice you have given so far.

 

Your best action is dependent on circumstances in each case. If there
is plenty of room, an easy drift onto the shoulder and gentle
application of the e-brake may be all that is needed. However, if the
brakes fail at a critical time, I would start applying the e-brake
immediately and downshift into the lowest gear possible. Depressing
the service brake pedal will keep the brake lights lit if that is
important. If the situation is dire, sideswiping curbs, guard rails
or other vehicles may be necessary. Alternatively, steering to avoid
objects or at least pick the best object for impact may be the best
choice. It all depends on the circumstances.

 

I think that is the biggest risk. Power steering is mostly for low
speed parking maneuvers. There should be enough vacuum in the system
to provide braking assist to stop the car. Even without power brakes,
you should be able to safely stop the car under normal circumstances.
Of course, if you have a manual transmission and you leave it in gear,
you will not lose the power assist.

Just be careful not to turn the key any farther than necessary to kill
the engine.

 

Speculation by uninvolved observers as to cause of an accident is hardly
fact. You don't know that the driver ran through a stop sign. The driver
may have had a heart attack and been dead when the bus went past the stop
sign.

In my part of the world, school buses are tightly regulated. They must be
retired from servcie when only a few years old, and must be regularly
maintained, with records kept of the mainteance performed. Complete brake
failure is almost unknown in modern vehicles.

Stalling that leads to loss of power assist on brakes and perceived
brake loss is far more common. Stalling also leads to loss of power
steering and the perception that the steering wheel has locked. In both
cases, the brakes and steering are still functional but much more
difficult to operate.

Shifting out of gear is more likely to cause stalling. If the gas
pedal is stuck on the floor, it could cause the engine to self-destruct
before stalling. Bonus!

Strategies for responding to various system failures while driving
will depend on how the car is equipped, and driving conditions. No one
size fits all.

I will agree with you that many drivers are ill-equipped to deal with
sudden failures, even as simple as a flat tire. Regular maintenance
at a reputable shop is one way of reducing the risk. Better driver
training would also help. Maybe before long, new drivers will be
required to spend time in a true-to-life simulator before first
getting behind the wheel.

Dan

(This account is not used for email.)

 

Dan,
The fact is that lots of drivers would panic if their brakes failed to
work or the gas pedal stuck. Those people that panic would probably end up
crashing their vehicles. I now realize that other people had some tips
that were in some cases better than my tips and in other cases worst than
my tips. I just wanted people to know that crashing the vehicle to bring
it to a stop is the worst thing to do. Even if you disagreed with my
tips--I think that all of us can agree that we don't need to crash to stop
when the brakes fail or the gas pedal sticks.

 

It's a last resort, but there may be circumstances which make a crash
unavoidable. Choosing what to hit may be your only option.

 

Great point. This is especially true related to tractor trailors going
down a grade. A trucker told me that once you push in the clutch or shift
to neutral--that the truck starts moving really quick and it's impossible
to get the truck into a lower gear without damaging the transmission. He
even told me a funny truckers story:

What to do if a truckers brakes stop working or
the gas pedal sticks while going down a grade:
1. Pray
2. Put your head between your legs.
3. Kiss your ass good bye.

 

My comment wasn't meant to be facetious - not sure if you took it that
way. Sideswiping a line of parked or stopped cars or even going
head-on into a traffic pole or other stationary object is a lot better
than rolling into an intersection at 10 mph when heavy cross-traffic
is going 50 mph. You have to judge the situation and make your best
decision when it arises.