I have and ford escort 1998 i have no idea whats

Had same issue today: as soon as I'd hit a stop sign or just stop it would go like it was on Neutral even though it was in Drive... I though it was the whole transsmition and was resigned to change it completely ($$$) but I took it to an honest mechanic and told me that the 1997 escorts need to be checked on with the hand brake and on Drive (make sure the brake is all the way up) it was missing like almost 1.5 ltrs of Trans. fluid =/ told me to add 1 ltr and to see if it'd stop... it did =D spent not 10 dlrs fixing it... ohh but my transmission fluid was pink going a lil brown sorry to say, you should have it changed along with the filter