Fact is better than fiction. Especially when real life plays out just as well as it does in the movies. That’s just what happened in Nanjing last week, in a race against the clock to avert disaster as the brakes failed on a pregnant women’s car.
It was the last day of August, and the expecting lady in question was driving along Nanjing’s outer ring road in the north of the city near Laoshan National Park. On this section of the road, the speed limit is 100 km/h.
DDuring the normal course of driving, the lady touched the brake pedal on her vehicle at about 19:10 and found that it had no effect. As if that was not alarming enough, not far ahead lay a toll booth.
Remarkably managing not to panic, the woman had the good sense to immediately call the police emergency number, 110.
The responding officer told her to drive in the left lane, to stay there and to keep pumping the brake pedal. They would make arrangements for her at the toll booth which was now almost in sight.
Officers on duty at the toll booth rushed to set up a special diversion for the lady and her rapidly approaching car, reports The Paper.
Removing a section of traffic cones, the duty officers created an impromptu lane and had the gates of the unused toll gates opened to permit the lady to pass through, hence avoiding what could have been a catastrophic accident.
It is on account of such possible eventualities that some toll booth lanes are deliberately closed to traffic. They can then be opened at a moment’s notice to allow passage in emergencies for ambulances, etc., or in this case, as in the movie, “Speed”, an incoming Sandra Bullock.
With her foot off the throttle, the woman’s car sped by the traffic cones and the queues of cars waiting at the toll gates, to coast to a halt not far away. Once she had calmed down after the dramatic ordeal, a tow truck took the lady and her car on their way. Sandra would have been proud.
