On Board Emergencies

Not all challenging conditions come from the weather. You can be driving along on a clear, dry, beautiful day; within seconds, you are in a struggle to regain control of your out of control vehicle. On board emergencies tend to come on suddenly and can be deadly. Before you leave home, a weather forecast can inform you that you may face some challenging conditions. If a brand new tire blows out while you are moving along at 65 miles per hour, though, you have little to no warning. You need to quickly gather your wits, stay calm, and act.

Dealing with on board emergencies cannot simply be taught in a Driver’s Ed course or in courses such as this one. But, if you combine what you’ll learn here with your good common sense, you should come out of most any emergency with the best possible outcome for both you and your passengers. As you read earlier in the course, you can only learn about some driving situations through direct experience: you must live them. By the way, don’t fret at the length of some of these explanations you’re about to get. Remember, your brain works a lot faster when you think of these techniques than when you read about them.

WITH ANY SIGN OF TROUBLE, THE NATURAL INSTINCT IS TO APPLY YOUR BRAKES.
REGARDING EMERGENCIES, THIS IS NOT WHAT YOU GENERALLY WANT TO DO.

We brought up blown tires a bit earlier. That is a good place to start.