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  • Aug. 19, 2011 3:29 p.m. fasted58 Dork

    http://autos.aol.com/article/man-tries-to-brake-car-with-feet/?icid=main|verizon|d...

    Warning to readers: though Fred Flintstone may have been able to brake his car with his feet, the physics of cartoons does not play out in real life.

    A 24-year-old in the Detroit metro area did not get this vital memo when attempting to stop his car when the brakes failed. Actually, he told police he knew the brakes weren't working on his pickup truck, but he had to do something for work. So he figured he'd try using his feet.

    He hit four vehicles along his two-mile Goesbeck Highway adventure -- all the while dangling his feet outside of the car in an attempt to slow it.

    Surprisingly, he wasn't drunk or otherwise impaired, police said. He was hit with a citation for reckless driving and his driver's license was suspended.

    Note to readers: You cannot use a dinosaur as a crane. You also can't suspend yourself in mid-air, only falling once you realize you'e stepped off hard ground, a la Wile E. Coyote. You also cannot disarm a robber by yelling Expelliarmus and waving a wand at them, like our fictional friends in the Harry Potter books.

  • T.J.

    Aug. 19, 2011 4:31 p.m. T.J. SuperDork

    Again, another dodged bullet. This one is not Florida, but Michigan.

  • aussiesmg

    Aug. 19, 2011 4:39 p.m. aussiesmg SuperDork

    But this guy actually has a job in Detroit, how bad are the 50% who do not?

  • ClemSparks

    Aug. 19, 2011 4:50 p.m. ClemSparks SuperDork

    I don't care what you say...I'm keeping my baby elephant vacuum cleaner.

    (thanks Weird Al)

    Clem

  • dogbreath

    Aug. 19, 2011 5:13 p.m. dogbreath Reader

    aussiesmg wrote:

    But this guy actually has a job in Detroit, how bad are the 50% who do not?

    Too smart to try to drive their broken pickups to job interviews.

  • ST_ZX2

    Aug. 19, 2011 5:36 p.m. ST_ZX2 Reader

    Darwin will eventually find this guy.

  • Karl La Follette

    Aug. 19, 2011 6:19 p.m. Karl La Follette Dork

    he musta really hate his left leg or its the luckiest appendage on his body ? The power of scrap metal prices!

  • Grtechguy

    Aug. 19, 2011 6:27 p.m. Grtechguy SuperDork

    geeze....use the effen parking brake. not your feet.

    I once drove a blazer for 50 miles using only the parking brake.

  • N Sperlo

    Aug. 19, 2011 6:52 p.m. N Sperlo Dork

    Grtechguy wrote:

    geeze....use the effen parking brake. not your feet.

    Its not out of the ordinary for the lines to be broken to that as well, but there was no mention of it. I was wondering the same thing as Wifey was voicing it.

  • donalson

    Aug. 19, 2011 9:05 p.m. donalson SuperDork

    there is always downshifting... even in a slushbox... got a friends suburban home with a huge rear brake fluid leak (hard line crack)... had no e-brake working...

    know someone who said he drove a mini (classic) 100+ miles with nothing but the e-brake with out a prob...

    but people don't tend to think to much about that stuff...

  • mad_machine

    Aug. 20, 2011 7:30 p.m. mad_machine SuperDork

    well.. that requires you to actually "drive" the car. I doubt our friend Fred here knows how

  • griffin729

    Aug. 20, 2011 9:33 p.m. griffin729 HalfDork

    Honestly with the condition of a number of cars I've seen on the roads of Detroit this does not surprise me.

  • mad_machine

    Aug. 21, 2011 10:25 a.m. mad_machine SuperDork

    with the condition of cars in Michigan.. I was surprised to learn he stuck a foot out the door and not just through the floor

  • foxtrapper

    Aug. 23, 2011 6:49 a.m. foxtrapper SuperDork

    I actually have done this, but I kinda cheated.

    Old car with a floorboard mounted master cylinder. The car was badly rusted. When to hit the brakes, and the whole thing ripped out. It was hanging on by the brake line. With lots of sparks and carefull manuevering, I was able to maintain some pedal pressure and bring the car to a halt.

 
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