Safety · 5 min read
What to Do When Your Car Breaks Down on the Freeway
If your car breaks down on a freeway, move as far right as possible, turn on your hazard lights, and stay inside the vehicle with your seatbelt fastened. Most roadside injuries happen to people standing outside their cars. Call 911 if you are stopped in a live traffic lane, then call a tow operator.
· AA Towing Services
The first sixty seconds
When a car starts to fail at speed, you usually get some warning — a loss of power, a noise, a warning light. Use it. The single biggest factor in how this ends is where the vehicle comes to rest.
- Signal and move right immediately, across as many lanes as you safely can while you still have momentum.
- Aim past the shoulder if there is anywhere further — an exit ramp, a gore area, a wide verge. Distance from traffic is everything.
- Turn on the hazard lights as soon as you commit to stopping, not after you have stopped.
- Straighten the wheels and set the parking brake.
When to call 911 first
Call 911 before you call a tow company if any of these are true:
- You are stopped in a live traffic lane and cannot move
- Anyone is injured
- There is smoke, fire, or a strong fuel smell
- You are on a blind curve or over a crest where approaching drivers cannot see you
- A child or pet is locked inside and conditions are hot or cold
Michigan State Police and county road patrols can close a lane, position a cruiser as a shield, and get traffic control there far faster than any tow truck. That is a different service from towing and it is the one you need first in those situations.
What to tell dispatch
Most people apologise for not knowing exactly where they are. You do not need to. Give us:
- The freeway and the direction you were travelling — 'I-696 westbound'
- The last exit or mile marker you passed
- Whether you are on the shoulder or in a lane
- The make, model and year, and whether it is all-wheel drive
- Whether the car rolls and whether it steers
That is enough to place you and to send the correct truck. The AWD question matters more than people expect: towing an all-wheel-drive vehicle with wheels on the ground can destroy the transfer case, so it needs a flatbed.
While you wait
- Keep the hazards on and stay belted in
- If you must exit for safety reasons, leave via the passenger side, away from traffic, and get well behind a barrier
- Do not stand between your car and oncoming traffic — that is the most dangerous position on the road
- Do not attempt a tire change on a live freeway shoulder if you can avoid it; that is genuinely the most hazardous thing a stranded driver does
- Keep your phone on and answer unknown numbers — that is the driver calling
