Brake Fail

Someone crashed his car into a building in an attempt to turn onto an uphill street after finding his brakes inoperative; this makes about ½-dozen times something similar has happened in the past few years. I've had brakes fail, myself (different vehicles but the master cylinder gave out both times). However, only the first time resulted in a fender bender because I was already at the parking spot, on a downhill, when it happened.
The second time I was also on a downhill but on a road in the back woods of nowhere. I quickly held out the emergency brake handle (so it wouldn't lock up) while pushing hard on the emergency brake pedal. Of course, from then on I drove rather slowly until I got somewhere to be serviced -- coming to complete stops by putting the gearshift in Neutral while employing the emergency brake in said manner; much better than using a building, tree or such...

The second time I was also on a downhill but on a road in the back woods of nowhere. I quickly held out the emergency brake handle (so it wouldn't lock up) while pushing hard on the emergency brake pedal. Of course, from then on I drove rather slowly until I got somewhere to be serviced -- coming to complete stops by putting the gearshift in Neutral while employing the emergency brake in said manner; much better than using a building, tree or such...

