to want to thank the lady in a blue mazda on M25

[mw27pink]

We were travelling on M25 this morning at about 9.30 on the fast lane. Couple of cars before us suddenly slowed down, but the breaks in our car did not work. All I remeber is me shouting at my husband to slow down as I could see us crashing into this convertable blue mazda(not sure about the make). The lady herself was able to break on time and get out of our way by 10 cm...I am still shaking. We were going out for a fun family day and it could have gone soo wrong. We never got a chance to say thank you to her as we had to move out of the motorway all togather, but I have been thinking of that woman all day as I dont think she realised how lucky she was avoiding us at 70ml/h crashing on her back. So whoever you are THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

The brakes didnt fail. They were not fit for motorway driving in the first place.

Your DH was caught by surprise by cars ahead braking, and hadnt left enough distance between himself and the cars in front. Their brakes worked fine but his stopping distance was much longer.

If you had crashed, you would have been done by the police. The blue Mazda had a lucky escape.

Now get your car to Kwik Fit and sort the brakes out before you kill somebody (including yourselves).

Better still, get it picked up and towed to the garage, how on earth do you know it's not going to happen again at lower speed? It should under no circumstances be driven after an incident like this. I would have pulled onto the hard shoulder to await recovery, it was completely irresponsible to continue driving

Cant believe anyone would continue a journey with those brakes after that scare! You are putting lives at risk.

Get those brakes sorted and do not drive the car until they are

sorry, didn't read thatg bit properly. Apologies Quattro

You're thanking a woman for getting out of the way because you were driving a car with faulty brakes?!

Jesus christ.

No worries - phrased my post badly in any event - meant to write that the OP had gone on in a car that wasn't roadworthy.

you drove a car you knew was not reliable at braking at higher speeds - on the motorway>??

i hope you are at a garage right now .. or are you going to carry on blithely and then drive back in this dangerous car?

I think the OP is well aware that they were at fault and doesn't need additional shaming. She's just very relieved and grateful to the Mazda lady - (and a guilty)- and wishes she could express it.

but she got back in the car and continued driving animation???

I guess they did what what they had to do - got from A to B.

This time.

Animation - but no-one would 'do what they had to do' with faulty brakes, surely? You'd pull onto the hard shoulder and call the emergency roadside assistance, wouldn't you?

If anyone does otherwise, time to introduce an intelligence test into the driving test!

OR it is not exactly that the brakes failed but that the OP's DH was indeed driving too close and too fast and the brakes were not up to the unreasonable challenge of stopping the car in time.

well we don't know if there's anything wrong with the car yet, - but on the day of the near accident I can't imagine they carried on driving fast.

And if they'd smashed into you and yours next?

Mw27pink - I am glad you and the family are okay.

BUT

But I am with Quattro. If you had hit that Mazda - it would be 100% your DH's fault - defective brakes or not.

'Breaks do seem to work when the car goes at 30 or 40 m/h and it is a big car ( 7 seater) ,so I presume it takes longer to break at 70 or 80??? I have no idea about engines or makes, but was glad it was my DH driving rather than me.'

I am VERY concerned by this comment, do you not understand braking distances vary with speed? <a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=www.lapdonline.org/assets/jpg/stopping_distance_chart.jpg&imgrefurl=mapowellwd.blogspot.com/2008_09_01_archive.html&usg=__juLet7AeFqWdP3B_JqCwRstvrug=&h=305&w=450&sz=42&hl=en&start=0&sig2=to90xDUMBOu2wE4H-LHuaQ&zoom=1&tbnid=FHPLWzrez0ArtM:&tbnh=136&tbnw=200&ei=zj6fTIKoCt6SOPzimI8L&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dspeed%2Bversus%2Bbraking%2Bdistance%2Bchart%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D1366%26bih%3D649%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=327&oei=zj6fTIKoCt6SOPzimI8L&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:3,s:0&tx=73&ty=88" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Take look at this chart.

There is no way I would continue driving after a brake failure - you should have pulled over onto the hard shoulder and called for assistance - the next time you and someone else may not be so lucky.

Maybe it wasn't a brake failure at all.
Maybe her DH is an irresponsible wanker who tailgates and drives way too fast for the conditions.

Are any of you folk actual drivers - because on the motorway this isn't that uncommon. The traffic can suddenly slow down from no- where and you're breaking hard sometimes. It's a shock when it happens, and doesn't necessarily mean anyone's at fault.

Well driving on the motorway at 30mph because the brakes don't work at a higher speed is hardly a safe practice.

Anyway, mw27pink hasn't clarified, so we don't really know what happened.

my brakes have failed on me twice, both times without warning. First time I had just driven 100 miles home from an event, on the motorway, everything fine, arrived home 12.15am parked on drive, went to bed. Came out next morning, reversed off drive, brakes failed, I hit the wheelie bin and ground to a halt.
Second time, driving down the road at about 40mph, braked for a corner nothing happened. went rapidly down the gears, and finally handbraked to a stop from about 10mph or I would have been in a ditch.
Both times were totally without warning, brakes had been fine up till that point. Apparently both times the pipe that holds the hydraulic fluid had been catching on something and had finally worn through and was leaking fluid causing total brake failure.
I dont ride round in a clapped out old sh*t mobile, but then again, not everyone can afford a shiny new car. Must be nice not to have to worry about when its going to break down and whether you have the money to fix it.

Animation, I drive on motorways all the time. Fast.

And it is because the traffic can slow or stop suddenly that I do my best to observe stopping distances. The fact is that it IS your fault if you are driving too fast / too close to stop if things seize up ahead.

sickoctheholidays - did you get in your car and continue driving when your brakes failed???

"I presume it takes longer to break at 70 or 80??? I have no idea about engines or makes, "

OP you do not have to know about engines or makes to know that the faster an object is travelling, the more distance it will cover as it slows to a stop.
This is why we are taught to keep an appropriate stopping distance when driving (two chevrons apart on a motorway).

Was it case of faulty brakes, or was this a case of the brakes locking up because they were applied suddenly?

I recommed that you keep an appropriate stopping distance and you buy a car with Anti-Lock Brake system otherwise this could happen again.

If your brakes were genuinely faulty then I really hope that you saw the accident (which I presume is what caused you to slow down) from the carriage of a tow truck.

Ditto what blu posted. I've never had a new car, usually an elderly VW. I maintain it, and don't continue to drive if here's something significant wrong.

Blu - was the OP's husband driving too fast and not observing stopping distance?

I don't drive (had a few lessons years ago).

But I know that the quicker you're driving the longer it takes to stop (regardless of how good your brakes are working). Therefore you have to leave a big enough gap in between you and the car in front to allow yourself to stop - so traffic slowly down suddenly shouldn't be a major issue (apart from being a pita)