[ferongr]

Has there ever been a successful assassination using this method? If some cut my brake lines I would know about it the moment I started the engine and applied the service brakes while putting the car into drive/releasing the e-brake, or become aware of it while maneuvering out of a parking space at speeds under 5mph.

[DanBC]

The theory is that the brake lines are weakened and fail at some point during the journey.

[btbuildem]

Not necessarily -- it would take a good few pumps of the pedal to introduce enough air into the system for the brakes to become ineffective.

[rdl]

There are a bunch of cases of amateurs who do this. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2081590/Man-arrested... http://www.ktbs.com/story/22346692/man-accused-of-trying-to-...

I'm more used to people just putting car bombs on the vehicles, though.

You should be good with the e-brakes, and should never 100% depend on your primary brakes when driving, but in practice I'm sure a lot of people get into situations where they wouldn't know to switch to e-brake if the main brakes failed, or wouldn't have time. The biggest risk to the assassin is that car accidents in modern cars just aren't that fatal -- you can hit another car head-on at 60mph and, with seatbelts, non-offset crash, airbags, etc., either walk away or at least survive at a hospital. It also leaves enough forensic evidence, especially if the driver survives and reports "my brakes just didn't work!" that it wouldn't be surreptitious.

A bomb isn't likely to be taken as an accident, either, but is at least likely to be effective.