Abstract: Locking mechanisms for a hand-operated parking brake having an elongated pulling plunger at a free end of which is a manipulating handle and a locking member normally spring biased toward locking engagement with the plunger and provided with a hook adjacent to the handle so as to be clasped in the driver's palm together with the handle without any conscious effort when the handle is manipulated by the driver for being pulled, whereby the locking member is slightly pulled by the driver immediately prior to pulling of the handle for unlocking the plunger in order to release the parking brake.