Cars breaking down in the middle of a busy road or highway can be a scary and stressful situation. Even then most of us have experienced vehicle breakdowns once in our life. The most common first response to such a situation is panic but instead, if you keep your nerves in control and respond effectively, you can be safe and get out of the situation quickly.
To remain calm in an emergency situation is important and if you are well aware of how to handle these situations everything automatically becomes easy. Therefore, the below article aims to guide you about a few steps that can help you during on-road car breakdown situations, if followed.
Get Off The Road
The first signs of the breakdowns are usually the jerking of the car; it clearly gives the message. At this very first sign of breakdown, get your car off the road. Maybe the car won’t allow you to go very far but use the shoulder of the road if available. The farther you move from the main traffic, the better and safer it is for you.
If the breaking point is the corner of the road then try to get off the corner as this is not at all safe as the other cars cannot see you in this location. It becomes even dangerous at night time. Even if there is no off-road space then get far away from the road as far as possible.
Inform The Incoming Traffic About Your Car
One of the easiest ways to avoid being hit by cars coming from behind is telling them that you are there. You can turn on the emergency flashers as these are the communicating language on the road. The blinking of these flashers tells people clearly that you have stopped in the middle because of some technical problems.
Having a roadside traffic triangle in your car is a nice practice. In the case of the breakdown pull out the reflective triangle and put it on the road at least ten feet behind your car as this will let the cars coming from behind knowing something is wrong and that there is someone before causing a new hitting accident to break out the vehicle. If you have more than one reflective triangle you can place them at different points starting from two hundred feet behind your car.
Call For Help
The sudden breakdown can be caused due to various reasons and identifying the root cause of the problem needs expert and professional skills. So, when in these situations, call for help. Your roadside assistance service is one call away. Your roadside assistance club can arrange a tow for you or even the on-spot repair if the fault is minor.
If you are not a member of a roadside club you can call the professional companies that provide professional roadside assistance that offer on-spot services. The services include towing, fuel delivery, extrication and winching, battery boosting. If your problem is beyond these spans then they would tow you to the nearest mechanic or repair station.
Don’t Try To Fix It Yourself
Once you have called for help, wait patiently in a safe place. Never try to repair the faults if you have no knowledge about them as it will do more bad than good. If you are one of the car enthusiasts, then you must have some knowledge. You may check for the problem and solve it if possible. Otherwise, the roadside assistance and towing companies are there to get you out of the unfortunate situation.
Common Breakdown Reasons
Most breakdowns occur due to common reasons such as,
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Faults in battery
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Radiator problems like heating
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Plugs
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Clutch cables
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High tension leads
Most drivers nowadays are equipped with knowledge about the causes of the problem and can handle it themselves, if they are minor. Otherwise, the roadside assistance and towing companies are waiting to help you.
