What to Do If Your Car Breaks Down on the Highway

**Full Disclosure: This is a sponsored post which also contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I get a teeny-tiny percentage at no cost to you. All opinions are my own.

Do you know what to do if your car breaks down on the highway? It’s the last thing you want to think about. However, this is something that occurs fairly often and it is important that you know what to do if it does happen.

Try Coasting along the shoulder– If you are on the highway and your car breaks down, you want to try and coast your vehicle along the shoulder until you are clear of any curves. Then, put your car in park, engage the emergency brake and turn your tires away from the road so your car won’t accidentally roll into any highway traffic.

Know where you are located– You are going to need to call for help so before you do so, you need to know where you are. Know what major highway exit you are close to or know what major landmarks like shopping malls or restaurants are nearby.

Call for roadside assistance– Contact your auto club but do so while remaining inside the vehicle, out of the way of oncoming traffic. If you don’t have a cell phone handy in the car, most highways have emergency call boxes that you can use.

Don’t work on your vehicle– The last thing you want to do is to try and do auto repair on the highway. You run the risk of getting hit by a passing vehicle if you attempt to do so.

Turn on the emergency blinkers– If it is still daylight outside, put your emergency blinkers on so that oncoming traffic knows that you have broken down on the side of the highway. If it is nighttime outside, you want to place warning lights or emergency flares about 6-8 feet in back of your vehicle to alert oncoming traffic.

Don’t abandon your car– After calling for help, don’t leave your car abandoned for any reason. First of all, the auto club personnel won’t be able to do anything to your car unless you are present. Also, the highway is a dangerous place for pedestrians to be, with cars driving by at over 60 miles an hour.

Then visit Kim’s Nissan to look for a new car so you won’t break down on the highway again!