20 years old and the break strings(?) just snapped. I suppose the mechanic did a sloppy job before (never went there again). It was flat where it happened, but

20 years old and the break strings(?) just snapped. I suppose the mechanic did a sloppy job before (never went there again). It was flat where it happened, but we have mamy quite steep roads here as well. So could have ended badly. (So it was just a allmost crash)