complete rubbish! in the hand book of my uncles civic it says NOT to press the button when applying the hand brake, which is 1 reason why Honda issued a recall on the hand brake leaver not latching as owners were pressing the button and the ratchet wasn't engaging properly and cars were rolling away, although in my mums civic it may say different as its a car that was built after the hand brake recall. the recall was carried out on his civic when the car has abut 6,000 miles on the clock but in 210,000 miles can you imagine how many times my uncle has used the handbrake, and he has never pressed the button.
the button has nothing to do with the ratchet mechanism other than to release the ratchet allowing it to move freely. when the MOT tester checks the hand brake they usually lift it up 1 click at a time until the brakes lock, they are doing 2 checks at once, seeing if the hand brake is working efficiently and how much leaver travel there is.
when the button broke, my hand was part over the button, as in the first finger was 'resting' on the buttons side and as i yanked up (as the car was rolling back, with a car behind my) you could say my hand slipped and popped the button.
i dont want to get in to a debate of should you press the button when putting the hand brake on or not, do it how you want, press and pull or just pull... although in a proper auto i wouldnt use the hand brake
