Police in the greater Detroit Metropolitan Area received an especially bizarre series of calls one evening: a driver was cruising across town in a pickup truck with his door open, and using one of his feet to stop the truck at every red light.

Deputy Police Chief James Berlin said, “Citizens were calling in saying this guy is all over the road, using his feet.”

By the time police caught up, the man was in Roseville, Michigan. In the harrowing dashcam footage he’s running red lights and narrowly avoiding multiple vehicles. At one light, he tries to stop but fails to get the truck slowed down enough. A police officer pulls up next to him and suggests he puts his vehicle in “park” but that doesn’t work.

Perhaps the bizarre idea would have been possible with a lighter vehicle. But the suspect was not only driving a truck, it appears he had something or another loaded into the bed–making it even heavier. He also was attempting to navigate the worst of rush hour traffic, with the first reports of his antics coming in at 5:30 PM.

This story does not have a happy ending. The suspect struck two cars at 13 Mile Road. He actually continued and hit two more cars once he got to Utica Road. Once police finally confronted the driver, they were shocked.

They had expected alcohol or some other drugs were involved. But instead found a sober 24-year-old man hailing from Warren, Michigan who said he was just eager to get home. He reported his brakes had failed during his drive, but he had come up with the novel new way to stop his truck and decided to continue instead of pulling over and addressing the issue. Berlin said, “He said he was going to fix the brakes when he got home.”

Of course this decision put everyone else on the road at risk. Berlin was far from impressed, “This guy’s no rocket scientist.” While the department didn’t immediately release the suspect’s name, Berlin said he already had a court date, “to explain his moronic decision making.”

From a purely technical perspective, I can tell you that this truck’s regular hydraulic brakes are divided into separate circuits for the front and rear wheels. In addition it has a cable-operated emergency brake for the rear wheels. The owner should have had three redundant brake systems. For his brakes to completely “fail” during his evening commute–leaving him with no option but to stop his truck with his feet–he must have already been ignoring two separate brake system failures.

From a personal perspective, I’ve owned multiple project cars and I can say I understand the temptation to try a test drive in the midst of working out a problem. But I was lucky enough to be raised in a household where–no matter what I was wrenching on–I was told sorted seatbelts and brakes were mandatory for even the shortest test drive. Whenever I experience the slightest issue with either, I still hear my mom’s voice insisting I pull over and fix it immediately–or get a tow.

I have to say this young man absolutely should have pulled over and sorted the problem–or called someone to come help him. Crashing an old truck is sad, but killing a pedestrian or another driver is something that would stay with you forever.