Re: How to STOP a car with No Brakes!!
Acha, purani sarrial buddhi rooh gaari san 1990 eisweeN ka maadel. The brakes had been making grinding noises for a couple weeks but i kept ignoring them. Then for a few days the grinding noise disappeared and brakes became smooth again. Mainay kaha wah! Khud hee fix ho gaiy brakes! But then one fine snowy morning while driving to work i noticed the braking effect reducing everytime i pressed the pedal. I still didnt realize they would go away totally but i did start driving carefully keeping my distance from cars ahead.
The scariest part was when i wanted to turn left on a small street. I came into the left lane and hit the brakes to slow down, to accomodate any possible oncoming traffic. Lekin pata yeh chala kay the brakes had given up and instead of slowing down my van kept going. The snow and slippery conditions didnt make things any easier. Luckily there were no oncoming cars so i turned the van at quite some speed (about 30-40 kph) and it did feel out of control for a while but it did turn and i was able to turn into the small street. At that point i woke up my left foot and desperately tried to press the e-brake. See some stupid american cars have the e-brake near the left foot, as opposed to most cars which have it near the right hand (hence the name hand-brake).
So i engaged the e-brakes and the van skid to a stop. I still had a good 4 km drive to work so i just took side roads, drove very slow, around 20-30 kph, and drove with extra caution, anticipating stops and started e-braking from a distance 2-3 longer than normal. Also made sure that while i was braking with the e-brakes, i also pressed the regular brake pedal to make sure the car's brake lights went on (for cars behind me). Made it to work safe alhamdulillah.
All of the above could have been avoided had i had the brakes maintained. But for a $200 car what desi would spent $100 on brakes :D Kher that was the last straw in that van's 405,000 km life and now its awaiting its burial. Served us for a good ten years.