@GeorgeSanJose, Are you sure this is a true story? This was in one of the fiction mystery books by Craig Johnson, the main character is a sheriff in Wyoming. Good books. I’d have to look up which book it was in but I have read all of them. I’m waiting for his new one to come out this spring. Only it was grandpa up on the roof and the DIL dragged him all the way to town.
I thought this sounded familiar, so I looked in the place where all good friend-of-a-friend stories go: snopes.com. And I found this.
True or not, seeing that scene played out in my mind gave me a good chuckle! Sounds like something that would happen in “Lake Wobegon”. 
hmmm … it was in the 1980’s I think. I thought I read that story in the area newspaper. I searched for it on their website, but didn’t find anything. Maybe I read it at the supermarket checkstand. Well, it might have happened. Or maybe it didn’t. Either way, it’s a funny story.
Technically, your wife IS right about a brake being able to stop the car when in gear. But, the owners manual is explicit on how to leave a parked car. As EVERYONE has stated, an unattended car that’s idling and in gear is an invitation to disaster. She needs to drive a truck based SUV, with sufficiently low gear ratio to get that the parking brake can easily be over driven, even when idling if the driver doesn’t do a real grunt job applying it.
I don’t know what kind of car you have, but at some point, the parking brake cable may stretch enough to render the parking brake useless…then the accident will occur. But, at this point, it would not be an accident but negligence.
Would she condone walking away from a cocked, unattended loaded gun with the safety off, pointed in the wrong direction ?
This is a poor analogy cause the car is worse…
If this vehicle has rear drum brakes, this problem may rear its ugly head before too much longer. Drum brakes are directional, so they are much, much more effective going forward than backward. They can hold a vehicle that is trying to go backwards but not nearly as well as if it were trying to go forward. I recently got a new (to me) truck with a five speed manual transmission, and have taken off after forgetting to release the parking brake (long time, no stick). The parking brake will allow me to back up with little enough resistance to go unnoticed, but as soon as I try driving forward, the truck won’t move. This is a bad habit that makes absolutely no sense and needs to be stopped before someone gets hurt or killed.
Mark9207…thank you for explaining the situation in more detail. This is the exact way my truck with a drum parking brake behind the disc running brake behaves, and how many cars are designed. Going backwards as soon as I put it in reverse with the parking brake on, is the norm and not the exception. Though OP’s car may not be as aggressive, it does show the potential is there and immediate.
BTW George, I remember the story too…and am equally unable to remember where.
Literally, an accident waiting to happen.
The OP should trade his wife’s car in for a car with a manual transmission. If the parking brake holds, the engine would stall. If the OP’s wife can’t drive a manual transmission, this is even more reason to trade in the car for a stick shift.
Your wife should have her license yanked and never be allowed to operate a car again until she changes her ways. That sounds harsh but it’s not as harsh as what will eventually happen when the car runs someone over.
This habit is way beyond ignorance and what happens if the park brake mechanism or cable fails while it’s sitting there idling?
JMHO, but short of some dire need for doing so I don’t think a car should be left idling with park brake on even while the transmission is in PARK. A fault in the shift linkage, out of adjustment linkage, etc. and the transmission can pop itself into reverse.
A situation like below can easily happen.
http://www.aboutautomobile.com/Complaint/2005/Ford/Escape/Parking+Brake
I would love to hear her reason, for the life of me I can’t thimk of a possibility.
The sad thing about it, this woman is a mother.
Maybe she is afraid it will roll forward and hit the garage.
I appreciate all of the input. I don’t know why she insists on doing this. She can’t tell me why. Now that she has seen all of your comments I hope it will make an impression on her to change her ways.
Things like this hit home with me because several decades back I saw a little 3 year old girl almost lose her life when she was crushed between 2 cars. While in the drive one Sat. afternoon the neighbor lady next door was working with her flowers while her 2 kids played in the yard and drive. I just happened to be in my driveway tinkering with my motorcycle when I heard the scream of a child.
The drive was slanted downhill and apparently what happened is that the 3 year old girl was riding a tricycle between the car and the pickup that was parked in front of the car. The older brother (about 6 years old) of the little girl had gotten into the pickup and someone disengaged the park brake followed by moving the manual transmission shifter into neutral. The truck rolled backwards just at the time the little girl was between the 2 vehicles and her head was caught between the bumpers. This happened some decades back and both vehicles had steel bumpers, not plastic valances.
The mother screamed and I went running as fast as I could along with a friend of mine who just happened to be visiting. We both shoved the pickup forward (no easy task uphill) and while my buddy tried to hold the truck in place I ran around, set the park brake, and got the little boy out of the truck so as to avoid a repeat.
The little girl was half unconscious and badly skinned up. My fear was that her skull was fractured and seeing as how the husband of the lady was not home I took both mother and daughter to the hospital emergency room.
The little girl suffered a mild concussion, blurred vision for a while, and major noticeable bruising but was going to be ok. This could have turned out much worse than it did and I hope it illustrates Murphy’s Law if nothing else.