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Emergency stop has several meanings.
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United Kingdom driving test
For the practical section of the driving test, an examiner will often request the candidate to perform an emergency stop. This is done in order to evaluate how well a candidate can react to a dangerous situation and bring their motor vehicle to a safe stop. Currently around 1 in 3 candidates undertaking a practical driving test have to perform an emergency stop.
Railways
On railways, an emergency stop is a full application of the brakes in order to bring a train to a stop as quickly as possible, much like an emergency brake. This occurs either by a manual emergency stop activation, such as a button being pushed on the train to start the emergency stop, or on some trains automatically, when the train has passed a red signal or the driver has failed to respond to warnings to check that he/she is still alert.
Ships
In large ships, an 'emergency stop button pulls the countershaft for the fuel pumps to the stop position, cutting off the fuel supply and stopping the engines. With a controllable pitch propeller, the stop button may declutch the engine from the propeller.
Industrial equipment
On large industrial machines, an emergency stop button is typically located on the panel, and possibly in several other areas of the machine. This provides a rapid means to disconnect the energy source of the device to protect workers. In some contexts, such as nuclear reactors or data centers, the emergency stop is known as scram.
Amusement rides
The emergency stop on an amusement ride is similar to that on industrial equipment. Typically brakes on a ride are designed to be disengaged when power is applied; disconnecting power will cause all brakes to engage. Most amusement rides have a computer that can, similar to the rail example provided above, engage the emergency stop when such a ride is determined to be out of operating specification.
See also
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