I remember an incident years ago when I did a double-take upon seeing a neighbour`s Mini car rolling sedately and silently down the road, followed seconds later by said neighbour, looking anything but sedate as she tried to catch up with her escaped vehicle!.

Yes, she had parked it outside her [...]]]>

What If The Handbrake Fails?

I remember an incident years ago when I did a double-take upon seeing a neighbour`s Mini car rolling sedately and silently down the road, followed seconds later by said neighbour, looking anything but sedate as she tried to catch up with her escaped vehicle!.

Yes, she had parked it outside her house and forgotten to put the handbrake on! Luckily the slope was gentle and the car rolled harmlessly into the kerb.

Recently I heard about a similar but more scary incident when a vehicle could have  rolled off a cliff onto a house below. Fortunately that didn`t happen as the car hit a wall which stopped it, albeit causing extensive damage to the vehicle.

So what are the lessons to be learnt from these incidents?

Firstly, never ever leave your vehicle parked without applying the handbrake. Sometimes an incline can be so slight that you don`t even realise that it is a slope.Your car will certainly realise it though!

Secondly, if you are parking on a very steep hill, never rely solely on the handbrake to hold the car. Always take the extra measure of leaving the car in gear. If you drive an automatic you usually have no choice anyway, as in most cars you have to select “Park” before you can remove the ignition key. In a manual car, select first gear if you are facing up the hill and reverse if you are facing down it. That way, even if you didn`t pull the handbrake up sufficiently, or even in the unlikely event of the handbrake cable snapping, your car will move only an inch or so and then stop again.

As a third precaution when parking on very steep slopes, you should leave your wheels turned so that if the car does roll it will roll into the pavement and hopefully come to rest.

Oh and when you come back to your car later, do remember that you have left it in gear! Take it out of gear or press down fully on the clutch before attempting to start the engine otherwise your car will lurch forward or backward and maybe hit another parked vehicle!