HOW TO STOP IN AN EMERGENCY WITHOUT ABS A Canadian Direct Insurance Claim: A Canadian Direct customer's son was driving his vehicle. He was driving north on Garden Avenue when another car passed him, and then cut directly in front. He slammed on the brakes, lost control, and skidded to the right when the brakes locked up. The car hit the curb on the side of the road, went over that and hit a rock. There was extensive damage to the right front of vehicle. Could This Accident Have Been Avoided? Knowing how to stop your car in a hurry may just be the most important driving skill you can ever master. Of course, how to do that depends on whether your vehicle is equipped with an Anti-lock Braking System (ABS) or not. In a future article I'll take a detailed look at ABS, but for now, let's look at what it takes to stop in an emergency when driving a vehicle that is not equipped with ABS. The brakes on a modern automobile are far more powerful than almost any engine. In other words, the car is capable of stopping much quicker than it can accelerate. They are the car's most powerful system. And yet, most drivers use less than half the brakes' capabilities, and even then, use them improperly. In fact, most drivers, when faced with an emergency, fall into one of two categories: they either don't brake hard enough, or like the driver in our claim, they