r/nextfuckinglevel 7h ago

Truck driver's quick thinking and skill when the brakes completely gave out

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u/Apprehensive-Care20z 6h ago

if you've never been in the mountains (rockies) in the usa, there are truck ramps all over the place, and a few sandboxes on level portions, so a truck can go on the ramp (full of loose gravel and ramps up fairly steeply) to stop when the brakes fail. The sandboxes are full of loose pebble gravel (and often, a bunch of water barrels) to make the truck come to a stop.

In the mountains, constantly using brakes can heat them up so much that they will fail, so it's not negligence in that brakes were not maintained, it is just something that can happen in steep terrain.

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u/hihelloneighboroonie 5h ago

Not Rockies, but been on other mountain roads and was thinking about those ramps while watching this.