BREAKING DOWN ANYWHERE is inconvenient, but a breakdown on a freeway or fast-moving highway can be dangerous for you, your passengers and the professional crew who have to come out and recover your car.
The main causes of freeway and highway breakdowns involve batteries, tyres or fuel. Regular maintenance and pre-journey checks can significantly reduce the risk of breaking down.
Check batteries, tyres and fuel levels before driving on the freeway, or setting out on a long trip. This will reduce the likelihood of an avoidable and potentially dangerous breakdown.
Stopping on the freeway is very dangerous. That’s why breakdown organisations suggest you should try to make it to the next service area or junction if you possibly can.
It’s also wise to familiarise yourself with freeway breakdown safety advice, so that if you do break down and need to stop on the freeway, you will know what to do to help reduce the risk to yourself and your passengers.
Before your journey
Check batteries and tyres. Also check you have plenty of fuel or charge to avoid a potentially costly and dangerous breakdown.
If you do break down
- If your car is malfunctioning, aim to leave the freeway at the next junction or services. If this isn’t possible, move left into the hard shoulder or the nearest emergency area.
- Put your hazard lights on.
- If you can, get out of the vehicle via the passenger door. Move onto the other side of any safety barrier. Stand beyond the barrier or verge, in a position behind the vehicle.
- Don’t attempt any repairs to your vehicle, and don’t put out a warning triangle
- Call provider (such as a roadside assistance body or motoring association) for help
- If you cannot do the above, or in an emergency, stay in your vehicle, keep seatbelts and hazard lights on. Call 000 immediately.
The advice from various bodies is to not put out a warning triangle and is a little hard to understand. There are differing views on this. If you decide a warning triangle is safer and it will forewarn approaching traffic, place it at least 45 metres behind your car, on the same side of the road. Interestingly, broken down trucks are required to put out three warning triangles. A recent new product in the UK is a large sign that can be attached to the rear of the vehicle warning that it has broken down.