‘I can’t stop.’ Frantic driver calls 911 when brakes go out, and CA cop gets creative
A woman was in her grandfather’s car when the brakes failed, so she frantically called 911 for help, leading an officer to get creative, California police said.
The driver was in her grandfather’s 1947 green Chevrolet Suburban on a road in Fontana at about 10 a.m. on June 11 when she began having trouble braking, according to a post on Facebook by the city’s police department.
“I can’t brake or nothing, and I’m running all these red lights and I don’t know what to do,” the driver said in the 911 audio recording attached to the post.
The dispatcher offered ways to potentially stop the car, including an emergency brake, police said.
But the driver told the dispatcher that the emergency brake didn’t work and that the car was in the lowest gear so it couldn’t slow down.
“I even turned the car off, and it’s just rolling and rolling,” the driver said.
While she spoke with the dispatcher, units were on the way to help, police said.
An officer got to the driver and “noticed her quickly approaching the road construction” and “heavy traffic,” according to the post. She’s heard telling the dispatcher “I can’t stop.”
He decided to drive the patrol car in front of her and slowed down until she hit him, using his brakes to stop both cars, police said.
“He went in front of me and he braked and he told me hold on,” the driver told KABC. “I was in the car with my dog, mind you... So I’m holding on to the steering wheel, and I’m holding her... and just boom, I hit into him really, really hard.”
Although the vintage car sustained some damage, no one was hurt, police said.
Fontana is about 50 miles east of Los Angeles.
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