Tips for Safe Braking with Anti-lock Brakes

Do you know the correct way to use your anti-lock brakes (ABS) in an emergency?  Anti-lock brakes are designed to prevent skidding, but a study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found that improper steering in vehicles equipped with ABS can send the vehicle veering dramatically out of control.  So what's the best way to avoid a potentially deadly crash?  Read our tips on how to use your ABS safely:

 1.  Don't pump your brakes!  ABS uses electronic controls and sensors to manage braking force during hard braking, when the driver steps on the brakes firmly without pumping them. Maximum brake force is achieved when the tires are turning at a certain speed relative to the vehicle's speed (i.e., when the wheels aren't locked and skidding).

2.  Know what to expect. When the ABS system is activated during hard braking, you may experience rapid pulsations or vibrations of the brake pedal and it may feel like the brakes are "pushing back at you."  Also, the valves in the ABS controller may make a noise that sounds like "grinding" or "buzzing." These are actually signs that your ABS is working, so if you're braking hard and any of this happens, just keep the brake pedal pressed down.

3.  Don't follow too closely. Under most conditions, a vehicle with a good anti-lock brake system can stop at a slightly shorter distance than an average driver could accomplish in the same vehicle without ABS; however, that is not the main purpose of ABS, and the difference is generally not great enough to be of any real use. Having ABS certainly doesn't improve your stopping distance nearly enough to justify driving faster or following more closely!

4.  Steer carefully while braking. If you need to steer the car while braking to avoid an obstacle in front of you, carefully steer according to where you want your vehicle to go, and avoid sudden large steering inputs (i.e., don't suddenly jerk the steering wheel half  a turn while stomping on the brakes). If you do that, you may end up driving off of the road or into oncoming traffic.

5.  Test your ABS before you need it. When driving a car equipped with ABS, you must understand that the vehicle will both brake and steer differently than a similar non-ABS-equipped vehicle.  The best way to understand these differences is to experience them.  One way to gain this experience is to test the vehicle under non-emergency conditions.  Take your car to a large, unobstructed, paved area and practice panic stops, with and without steering, on both wet and dry pavements.

Most newer vehicles offer ABS as either standard or optional equipment.  To find out whether your car has an antilock brake system, and what type, read your owner's manual. Anti-lock Braking Systems were designed to improve driver safety, and if you follow the tips above, you will get the most out of this important safety feature if and when you ever need to use it!