When police in West Yorkshire stopped a vehicle for not having a sticker indicating it passed Ministry of Transport’s (MOT) inspection, they had a surprise when they looked through the spokes of one of the wheels only to discover one of the brake pads was missing.

According to the Telegraph and Argus newspaper, the driver was heading west on the M62 when the potentially life-saving stop happened. The cause of the missing brake pad looks to be that the pad and brake disc (rotor)  had been worn below specification the gap between the brake rotor and caliper bracket widened enough so that the brake pad could escape.

The danger of when this happens is that the caliper piston can become dislodged from the caliper and cause a hydraulic failure. This can cause the brake pedal to go to the floor and it is very difficult to stop the vehicle in a safe distance. By the police taking this vehicle off the road, they saved the life of the driver and the life of the drivers around him.

Courtesy of the Telegraph and Argus