"CW" wrote in message
m...


"Lee Michaels" wrote in message
b.com...


As some one who has had two major incidents where my brakes did fail, I
can
relate. I obsessively look for the emergency brake in each vehicle I
drive.
================================================== ==================
You'd like my Ranger. To apply the E-brake, you have to stick your left
knee in your ear to get your foot high enough.


I was driving a friends pickup when the brakes failed. It had a weird
emergency brake that was under the steering wheel and pulled horizontally.
When the brakes gave out, I was moving at a pretty good clip down the street
and a bunch of cars were in front of me, waiting at a light. I went to pull
the brake and discovered to my horror, that I could not pull it hard enough
to stop the vehicle. I had to lean over to the right to get enough leverage
to stop the truck. But then, I could not see out the windshield. So I
quickly calculated where I would steer to get the truck off the road and not
hit the cars in front of me. I steered with one hand and pulled on the
brake with the other hand. And hoped nothing terrible would happen..

When it was all over, I looked up and discovered I had just missed a utility
pole by inches and another parked truck by inches. Somehow I had stopped
the truck in between those two things, not hit anything and got the truck
almost all the way off the road, up onto the sidewalk. Once I realized what
happened, I just started to shake and sweat. I took a couple minutes to
calm down, walked to the corner and made a call. And I yelled a lot. I was
really upset. He came out and towed the truck away. I did not drive the
truck after that.

The other time was in my own vehicle. It was a very straightforward foot
emergency brake on the left side. Easy to get at and very effective. I was
going down a steep hill towards a major street. The brakes failed. There
was nobody else around, no traffic or pedestrians. I stomped on the
emergency brake and the truck started to swerve a little. I had to release
the brake a couple times to get the vehicle under control. I ended up going
off the road into a parking lot. It was a little scary, but it was just me
and the truck.

When I stopped, I looked up to see where I was and discovered I had brought
the truck to a stop at a brake and muffler shop! I was shocked. So I eased
it a little bit further into the parking lot and went in and told them what
happened. He wrote me up and posted a sign on the truck letting everybody
know there was no brakes. I understood that the pushed the truck into the
shop by hand.

I walked home and came back the next day to pick it up. I can honestly say
that is the only time I ever had a vehicle break down right in front of the
shop. Saved me the cost of a tow.