The incident occurred on a cold day in February of 2019 when my wife was driving the car on her way to work in the morning. She backed out of her parking spot like normal and then proceeded to an intersection where she found that her brake pedal had become hard and would not depress and she could not slow down. The vehicle continued moving into the main street at approximately 15 mph, where cross traffic was present. She narrowly missed hitting other vehicles and was grazed by another vehicle as she turned left onto the road (T intersection). Further inspection of the brake system by a Honda dealership did not yield any findings, but I have tested and witnessed the brake pedal becoming hard and not depressing on cold winter mornings here in the northeast. This same problem occurred in an older Honda Accord hybrid that I had owned and the solution was to replace a faulty brake booster vacuum hose with integrated check valve. We were very lucky that nobody was fatally injured in this incident but this type of failure has happened twice to our family already. I suspect that other incidents involving a failing brake booster check valve resulted in the total destruction of the car or that diagnostic services by mechanics would replace the master cylinder or brake booster and finally all the hoses, thereby eliminating the problem. I'm reporting these two incidents because I hope that this will inform auto manufacturers to add the inspection of brake booster check valves to required maintenance schedules to help avoid future injuries or fatalities as a result of the failing part.

- Andover, MA, USA

On several occasions the brakes on my car have locked and I have had to use the parking break to stop. Both instances have occurred in very cold weather, early in the morning, so fortunately no injuries occurred. In both cases the break was pressed, and the car was reversed. In the first case the break was then used to stop the car, the car was placed in drive, and then the break became locked in an upright position and the car was not able to be stopped with the break after accelerating in drive. The car was driven out of a driveway and onto a main road. The parking break was employed to stop the car from hitting a fence. On the second occasion the car was put in reverse and the break then became locked in the upright position. The parking break was again employed to prevent backing into other cars. In both cases the breaks then functioned normally thereafter. The car was taken to a repair shop for this problem and when no abnormality could be detected (in warmer weather) Honda was contacted. Honda advised of a defect in the valve of the power boost for the automatic breaks in which it becomes stuck in an open position in cold weather. The valve is being replaced at the shop, as Honda will not cover the repair since there is no recall for this problem! I was very lucky in that both instances occurred at hours when there are not many cars on the road. I hope that no one becomes injured from this defect.

- East Norwich, NY, USA