Funny thing.
The laws in IL require a modified or specially built vehicle to have functioning "Emergency brakes." Guess its a good thing that law isn't enforced very much. After that 1st inspection, they forget about it.

I've used the "hand" brake to stop a vehicle, more then once, after the regular brakes have failed. It wasn't fun, or a very fast stop, but it did work. One time was with a modern dual reservoir master cylinder. When a brake line, or brake hose fails, it will still empty the master cylinder with a couple pumps of the pedal. Many of the current plastic brake reservoirs do not have a separation between the two chambers, except possibly a small reserved area that can still empty. .