September 5, 2025

DRIVER MAKES ‘RIGHT’ DECISION WHEN BRAKES FAIL ON MAIN STREET LATE THIS AFTERNOON

GRAVENHURST — When Ken Shanks’ brakes failed as he approached the James Street on Muskoka Road South this afternoon he had three choices.

Hit the police car in front of him waiting for a red light; turn right and hit a big maple tree or veer further and slam into an old hydro pole.

It could have been worse.

Lucky for him — and that nobody was walking on the sidewalk — he chose the ancient pole, which looks like it was one of the of last vestiges of Gravenhurst’s original main street and rail line.

Shanks, who said he suffered no ill effects, was sitting on a street bench across the road from the accident around 4 p.m. when he said “My brakes failed when I put my foot all the way to the floor. I tried to get my foot on the emergency brake, but I couldn’t lift onto it to stop.”

**Const. Mack Batten talks to Ken Shanks after the accident while waiting for a hydro crew to remove live wires from the truck cab. PHOTOS Mark Clairmont MuskokaTODAY.com**

The 76-year-old Oshawa resident who just picked his truck up out of storage was on his way back to Bracebridge where he used to live and to pick up some other things in storage there, when he crossed the southend main street railroad tracks and was proceeding north between the Shopper’s Drug Mart and Oliver’s Coffee when he made the safest decision he could veering right and jumping the curb.

“I’m just glad there was no one on the sidewalk,” he told MuskokaTODAY.com Friday.

Meanwhile, Const. Mack Batten watched the whole thing in his rear view mirrors and was quick to respond to the collision and Shanks and make sure he was out safely and uninjured.

Batten and another police officer blocked traffic between James Street and the railway line behind awaiting a hydro crew to remove the live wires sitting on the cab of the truck.