Drivers often take their brakes for granted, but what would you do if the mechanism that all drivers so heavily rely on stopped working all of a sudden? One man on TikTok found himself in that exact situation after he completely lost control of his truck thanks to faulty brakes.
Christian Trey Gallimore recorded himself sitting in his truck while the vehicle seems to move of its own accord. “Yo, I don’t know what to do. I’m going like 15 miles an hour right now but I’ve ran two red lights, I’ve almost cut someone off,” he explains. He then tries to show himself applying the brakes but the truck doesn’t slow down at all.
It’s certainly a dire situation and one nobody would ever want to find themselves in. Christian theorizes that he doesn’t have any brake pads but that doesn’t help his current situation.
What to do if your brakes fail
The video cuts before Christian is able to stop his truck leaving viewers wondering how he was able to bring it to a stop. However, plenty of comments criticized him for not knowing how to, or doing more to try and stop his truck. Many asked him why he didn’t apply the emergency brake, or force shift the car into neutral, “neutral??? e break?? Something???” wrote one viewer, “What about the emergency brake? Why are we not using emergency brake[?]” added another.
One user recommended taking out the key (or turning the engine off if it’s a keyless car), but this is not advisable, while it will slow down the car, it will also lock the steering wheel meaning you’ll lose the ability to steer.
If you ever find yourself in Christian’s situation there are multiple steps to safely stopping your car that you need to remember according to Dick Lovett. Firstly, don’t panic, come off the accelerator, check for obstructions around you and turn on your hazards. If it’s a manual car then you’ll want to slowly downshift gears (don’t go straight to neutral as it can cause more problems), automatics shift shift down gears automatically when you come off the accelerator.
The next step is to try the handbrake (emergency brake) as it can slow your car. While slowing down make sure to steer the vehicle safely. If all of these steps fail then your best bet is to scrape the car along the side of crash barriers to slow down.
How did Christian stop his truck?
When asked in a separate TikTok video how he stopped in the end, Christian claimed that he was able to drive in some mud which stopped the car before something terrible happened. Obviously that’s incredibly lucky but it’s worth remembering the several steps above in case you ever found yourself without any brakes, it’s a more common occurrence than you’d think.
