Emergency Stop: What to Do When Your Car Breaks Down

flat tire

It’s a good feeling to see bright tow truck lights coming near you when you’ve been waiting so long after your car breaks down. You can now rest easy knowing that your vehicle can now be moved somewhere safe and to be repaired later on. It’s a huge sigh of relief.

No one wants to be in that situation where their vehicle breaks down in the middle of the road. It could get worse if there’s no place nearby where you can ask for help. You will have no choice but to walk further down the road in the hopes of seeing a gasoline station. What would you do in this instance? Here are some tips for road safety for you and your car.

Warning Sign

All vehicles should have emergency triangles in their trunks. In the event that your car breaks down, you should take the sign out and place it about 10 feet from the rear of your car. You need to do this right away. This should serve as a signal for other cars to swerve away from your vehicle as they are approaching it. The triangle has a reflective surface that also makes it visible during night time. If you reach this situation, you can turn your hazard lights once in a while to conserve battery.

Call for Help

Once you have set your warning triangle, you can go ahead and try fixing your car. If you are with someone, you can ask them to find the nearest gasoline station or garage. Or you can switch and have them watch over the car. Hopefully, they are near enough that they can pull the vehicle from the road. If you have done all to the best of your capabilities and it is still not working, it’s time to call for help. You can phone someone to come to your location and help you. Maybe they are just living nearby and can bring you additional tools or hands for helping. If you want to bypass that and really think that the car is in need of more serious servicing, call the towing service.

Guide the Other Motorists

woman checking her car

Since your car will be idle for a while, you can choose to do your part in helping guide traffic. You can let other drivers know that your car has broken down by guiding them away from it. You can stand between your car and the emergency triangle and gesture to them to move to the other lane. Who knows, maybe this way someone will stop and help you out. People tend to be good Samaritans in situations like this. This is also a way to prevent accidents on the road. You do not want your vehicle to be the cause of that. Better safe than sorry.

Automobiles are complex machines. With that many moving parts, the reality is they do break down. When this happens, it is considered as a baptism of fire for motorists. It’s a challenging situation when your car breaks down. You should always be prepared to keep not just your car safe, but yourself as well.

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