Your brakes suddenly fail while you're driving in Oregon. What does the handbook tell you to do FIRST?
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A.
Pull the parking brake hard immediately.
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B.
Pump the brakes to try to build up pressure. Correct
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C.
Shift into reverse to slow the vehicle.
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D.
Turn off the engine.
The answer is "Pump the brakes to try to build up pressure."
The manual lists the brake-failure steps in order: pump the brakes, shift to a lower gear so the engine can help slow you down, slowly apply the parking brake, use your horn or lights to warn others, and once you have slowed, ease onto the shoulder. Pumping comes first because hydraulic systems can sometimes recover enough pressure with a few quick presses to get the brakes working again. Yanking the parking brake, answer A, treats a later, gentler step as the very first emergency action.
The traps in the wrong answers
A. Pull the parking brake hard immediately.
The manual says to apply the parking brake slowly, and only after pumping the brakes and shifting to a lower gear. Yanking it hard immediately can lock the rear wheels and cause a skid. This answer treats the parking brake as the first emergency action, when the manual lists it as a later step and says to apply it slowly rather than pull it hard.
C. Shift into reverse to slow the vehicle.
The manual says to shift to a lower gear so the engine can help slow you down, not into reverse. Shifting into reverse at speed can wreck the transmission. This answer confuses the manual's instruction to shift to a lower gear with shifting into reverse, which the manual never lists as a step.
D. Turn off the engine.
Turning off the engine is not in the manual's list of steps for brake failure, and it usually disables power steering and power brake assist, which makes the vehicle harder to control. This answer invents a step the manual does not list; turning off the engine is not part of the brakes-fail sequence on page 85.
This question tests your knowledge of Vehicle Equipment in Oregon. Source: Oregon Driver Manual, "Safe & Responsible Driving, Vehicle Equipment Failures, Brakes Fail," p.85..
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