Jesus Took the Wheel

 
I was at the top of a two-mile-high hill (called Skyline Drive in Ringwood, New Jersey. in bumper-to-bumper traffic that was about five miles drive from my home.. It was probably about a mile “as the crow flies”. The mountain was a serpentine, two-lane, north-south path that wound from a two-mile-high mountain. One side was next to the mountain, and the other side was a sheer drop from the road.

I was travelling southbound when, without warning, my brakes failed, and my foot suddenly pressed to the floorboards at the top of the 2-mile hill, about 5 P.M., in rush hour traffic. I fearfully cursed briefly before shouting, “Oh, God!” as my car careened forward. I held my hand on the horn as gravity firmly now had my car and me in its grip. It seemed like minutes, but it may have only been fractions of a second. As I entered the oncoming traffic, I found an opening in the northbound lane. And when I needed an opening in the bumper-to-bumper traffic, one was available. I swayed between hitting the side of a mountain and pitching my car off the mountain. 

As I got to the bottom of the road, another hill faced me. I now realized that the car would slow down enough to safely stop. I yanked the emergency brake to stop the car. I grabbed my cell phone to call a friend whose husband was a mechanic.

Shortly thereafter, a police car pulled up behind me, and I thought, “Oh, great! Just what I need.” The officer asked if I needed help. I thought, “I could have needed your help a few seconds ago!” I explained the situation and that I planned to take the car to a mechanic.

My friend’s husband reminded me that there is a device called an emergency brake. But in my car, there were two sets of brakes. The redundant system was designed to never fail simultaneously. He took the brakes out and looked confused. The fluids were all fine, and there was no apparent reason for the failure. He sent the brake system to the manufacturer, who had no reason for the failure.