NEW YORK (Reuters) - Jerry Seinfeld narrowly avoided crashing into a busy intersection when the brakes of his vintage Fiat failed, leading him to grasp for his emergency brake and sending the car into a roll.

Seinfeld was driving his 1967 two-door Fiat at a slow speed in the Long Island millionaires' enclave of the Hamptons on Saturday when his brakes failed as he approached a busy intersection, East Hampton Town Police Chief Todd Sarris said.

"He was astute enough to pull his emergency brake and cut his wheels as he was entering the intersection," Sarris said on Thursday. "Had he traveled into Route 27, which is a highly traveled road here in East Hampton, it could have developed into a very serious accident."

The story was first reported in the New York Post on Thursday.

Seinfeld was unharmed, and his car suffered minimal damage, said his representative, Elizabeth Clark-Zoia.

Seinfeld brushed off the accident and warned others not to follow his example.

"Because I know there are kids out there, I want to make sure they all know that driving without braking is not something I recommend, unless you have professional clown training or a comedy background, as I do," he said in a statement. "It is not something I plan to make a habit of."

Seinfeld has a large collection of sports cars, which is thought to include around 47 vintage Porsches.

He was reported to have spent $1.4 million to build a garage near his Manhattan home on the Upper West Side to park some of his vehicles.

Source: Reuters/Nielsen