This American driver lost his brakes on the interstate and is now sharing life saving advice for everyone
Published on Apr 28, 2026 at 1:15 AM (UTC+4)
by Ben Thompson
Last updated on Apr 28, 2026 at 1:15 AM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Emma Matthews
This American man found himself in a nightmarish scenario when his brakes went out while he was driving on the highway, and now he has life-saving advice to share.
With his girlfriend sitting in his passenger seat, Michael McIntyre had to think fast to figure out a solution.
After sharing footage of the terrifying incident online, he also has some tips on what drivers should do if they find themselves in this predicament.
It’s better to be safe than sorry, after all.
It was a scary moment when this man’s brakes went out
This was the video that sent shivers down the spines of drivers all over the internet.
Michael McIntyre, a 23-year-old from Ashland, Pennsylvania, was driving a 2008 Pontiac G6 GXP Street Edition when things went horribly wrong.
“I was heading for the exit on the interstate, went to press on my brakes, and they went straight to the floor,” he told Supercar Blondie.
“It was only about a minute up the road, I pulled over the first side street I found.
“My first reaction was to panic, but having another person in the car made me realize I needed to act.
“My girlfriend wasn’t necessarily scared – but if she was, she didn’t tell me.
“She knows what this car is like, she’s been with me for five years. She knows it’s one thing after another.
The car itself has been a work in progress for a while.
“I’ve had it for five years, and I’ve been working on it – I’ve learned a lot from my dad and YouTube,” McIntyre said.
“I’d worked on my brakes two times. The week before [the incident], I replaced the brake hoses on the front calipers on my car.
“The one bleeder that failed on me was giving me a little bit of trouble, so I took a little bit of heat and applied it to that bleeder.
“I got it loose, and continued with my bleed service throughout the whole system. I closed everything back up, everything was good, tested the brake pressure, and it seemed normal.
“Drove it for a week and everything seemed fine.
“This is the first complete failure I’ve had on the highway.
“When I took a look later, it was the one caliper that I’d used the heat on, I’d probably warped it. It was 100 percent my fault.
“It was leaking brake fluid, it was very scary.”
It really does sound like a driver’s worst nightmare, as one truck driver knew all too well when his brakes failed as he was going down a mountain road.
Here’s the life-saving advice you need to know
“When I went into work, I told the story to my friends, and they were telling me that they wouldn’t know what to do in this situation,” McIntyre recalled.
“That made me realize that half of the population wouldn’t know what to do.
“For a person who doesn’t know that much about how a car works, this video could be life-saving.”
That prompted him to share the video online, alongside a follow-up video dispensing said life-saving advice.
“E-brake first. Your car always has an e-brake, whether it’s the hand brake or the little pedal down by the pedals, or a button if it’s a newer car,” McIntyre explained.
@night_runner_g6 hope this helps!🙏🏼#fyp#nightrunnerg6#emergency#brake#awareness ♬ original sound – 𝓜𝓲𝓬𝓱𝓪𝓮𝓵 𝓜𝓪𝓬🥀
“You always want to apply your handbrake first and then downshift.
“Don’t try to go into neutral if your brakes fail, because if you’re going downhill, you’ll build momentum and speed. It’s better practice to downshift, because you’ll use the torque from the engine to gradually slow down.
“Don’t take shortcuts when you work on your brakes – make sure you get a certified mechanic to check it.”
Going forward, McIntyre intends to keep working on the car.
“This wouldn’t change my feelings towards the car, I understand what I did wrong,” he said.
“I love working on cars, I love wrenching on them, I’m going to carry on doing that no matter what.”
It’s always important to make sure your brakes are in good condition – these are the sounds you need to pay attention to.
Following stints at LadBible, The Sun, The New York Post, and the Daily Mail, Ben joined the team full-time in February 2025. In his role as Senior Content Writer, his sparkling copy, the ability to sniff out a good story at 100 paces, and a GSOH quickly led to him becoming an integral and invaluable member of the writing staff.
