What to Do When Your Car Breaks Down

It's a Tuesday evening on a road you drive without thinking about it. The engine note changes, a light comes on, and the car starts losing speed. Two kids in the back seat. Traffic moving fast in the lane beside you.

Knowing what to do when your car breaks down is a thirty-second decision, and thirty seconds isn't long enough to work it out from scratch. So here it is in advance.

Step 1: Get off the road, right side if you have a choice

The moment you know something is wrong, your only job is to get away from moving traffic. Not to diagnose the problem. Not to reach the next exit if the car won't make it.

Hazard lights first, before you've finished deciding where to stop. They're working the entire time.

Then aim for the best option you can actually reach, in this order:

1. A parking lot or side street, completely off the highway
2. A rest area or welcome center that's built for stopping, usually well-lit
3. A gas station, if a lot or rest area isn't reachable
4. An exit ramp, with lower speeds and more room than the shoulder
5. The right shoulder, as far right as the ground allows, as a last resort

On a divided highway, the left shoulder puts you beside the fastest lane with the least room to work with.

If the car is failing and you can't reach anything better, take it as far right as it will go and stop there. A ruined transmission is a repair bill you can pay. Being stopped in a live travel lane is the situation every step below is designed to get you out of.

Step 2: Stay in the car, buckled

Your instinct will be to get out and look at the engine. On a highway, the safer choice is almost always to stay put, and the agencies that manage these roads are unusually direct about it.

Maryland's traffic safety program tells drivers to stay in the vehicle, buckled and facing forward, and singles out bridges and overpasses as the places this matters most. New York's Thruway Authority gives drivers the same instruction.

The reason is the shoulder itself. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety studied seven years of crashes nationwide that killed roadside assistance workers, tow operators, mobile mechanics, safety patrols. In 63% of them, the striking vehicle had already left the road and was on the shoulder before impact. The shoulder is where those workers were standing. It's where you'd be standing too.

A car is built to absorb an impact. That protection only works while you're inside it.

Seat belt on. Doors closed. Everyone stays put, including the kids, and including the person who is quite certain they know what that noise was.

When should you get out of the car?

There are real exceptions, and they matter as much as the rule. Get out if:

• You smell smoke or see fire
• You're stopped in a travel lane rather than off the road
• The car's position feels genuinely unsafe to you. You're there and no article is

If you do get out, the guidance is specific. Leave through the doors on the side away from traffic. Move away from the roadway and put something solid between you and the lanes, a guardrail, a concrete barrier, an embankment. Face oncoming traffic so you can see what's coming. Go uphill and upwind if there's any chance of fire.

And don't wait beside the car. A vehicle's protection is for the people inside it. Once you're out, distance is what's working for you.

Step 3: Make the car easy to see

Your hazard lights are already on. Now add to them, and if it's dark, treat this as the step that matters most. In that same AAA Foundation study, 63% of the fatal crashes happened in darkness, and nearly two-thirds of those were at locations with no street lighting.

If you carry a reflective triangle, set it well behind the car, far enough back that a driver coming around a curve or over a rise sees it with room to change lanes. Commercial truck drivers are trained to walk facing traffic while they place triangles and to wear a reflective vest if they have one. That's good practice for anyone. If setting it out means stepping into a live lane, skip it. Your hazard lights are already doing that job.

An older trick still works: tie something light-colored to the driver's side door handle or antenna. New York's Thruway Authority still recommends a white cloth as a signal to passing drivers and patrols that a vehicle is disabled.

Here's the part most drivers don't know. Every state and Washington, DC has a Move Over law requiring drivers to slow down and change lanes for emergency vehicles, and a number of states have expanded theirs to cover other stopped vehicles displaying flashing lights, disabled cars included. Coverage still varies, so your own state's rule is worth knowing. But in much of the country, your flashers aren't a courtesy. They're a legal instruction to everyone approaching you.

What should you tell whoever you call?

Call roadside assistance if you have it, or 911 if you're in a travel lane or the situation feels unsafe. Either way, the most useful thing you can give them is exactly where you are.

Have these ready before you dial:

• The mile marker - small green signs on the right shoulder. Dispatchers navigate by them, and nothing else you can say is as precise.
• The last exit number you passed
• The direction you're traveling
• Any landmark you can see

"Northbound I-25, just past exit 156" gets a truck to you. "Somewhere on the highway" doesn't. Take a breath before you dial and know what you're going to say. It saves more time than it costs.

One thing worth knowing before you need it: roadside assistance isn't unlimited. AAA's Classic membership includes up to four service calls per member per year, with a charge after that, and the specifics vary by local club. A jump start you could have handled with your own cables uses one of them.

Step 5: Settling in for the wait

Help is coming, and it will probably take longer than the estimate you were given. This is the part nobody plans for, and it's the part that's actually hard when there are kids in the back seat.

Keep the doors closed. If someone stops to offer help, you can talk with them through a cracked window and let them know a truck is already on the way, there's no need to get out or open up to sort it out.

Run the engine sparingly for heat or air conditioning, and only if the exhaust pipe is clear of snow, mud, or debris. A blocked tailpipe can push carbon monoxide back into the cabin. If you've pulled over in deep snow and can't check the tailpipe safely, run the engine in short stretches rather than continuously and crack a window.

Save your phone battery. Screens drain it fast, and your phone is what connects you to help. If there's a charging cable in the car, this is the moment it earns its keep.

And give the kids something to do. That sounds small next to everything above, and it isn't. Ninety minutes on a shoulder is a long time. A deck of cards, a snack, a game, anything that makes the wait feel shorter is doing real work.

The whole plan in seven lines

Worth a screenshot before your next long drive:

• Hazard lights on immediately
• Get off the road - right side if you have a choice
• Stay in the car, buckled
• Get out only for fire, a travel lane, or a position that feels unsafe
• If you're out: behind a barrier, facing traffic, away from the car
• Call with a precise location - mile marker, exit number, direction
• Doors closed, phone battery saved, something for the kids to do

Common questions about highway breakdowns

Do I have to pull off if the car still runs?
If it's running but clearly failing, get off the highway while you still have a choice about where you stop. A car that dies on a shoulder you picked is a far better situation than one that dies in a lane you didn't.

How far behind the car should a reflective triangle go?
Far enough that a driver coming around a curve or over a rise sees it with room to change lanes, the exact distance depends on sightlines and speed. If placing it means walking into a live traffic lane, don't. Your hazard lights are already working for you.

Is it safe to run the engine while I wait?
Only if the exhaust pipe is clear. Snow, mud, or debris blocking the tailpipe can send carbon monoxide into the cabin. If you can't check it safely, run the engine in short stretches rather than continuously and crack a window.

Does having my hazard lights on require other drivers to move over?
In some states, yes. Every state and Washington, DC has a Move Over law, and a number of states have expanded theirs to cover any stopped vehicle displaying flashing lights, not just emergency vehicles. Coverage varies by state, so it's worth knowing your own.

One question worth sitting with

If your car stopped tonight on your regular commute, the stretch you drive without thinking about it, what's in the vehicle right now that would actually help?

Not what you'd want to have. What's actually in there.

For most of us the honest answer is a phone at some percentage and whatever has rolled under the seat. That isn't a failure of planning. It's just what happens when nothing has gone wrong yet.

The fix takes one afternoon: a light you can find in the dark, a first aid kit within reach, something warm, water that keeps, and a way to be seen. Whether you assemble it yourself or buy it packed, the part that matters is that it lives in the car, not in the garage, and not on a list.

If you'd rather skip the shopping, our RoadReady car emergency kits come packed and ready in three levels, from a glove box kit to one built for two people and a long wait. And if the car is sorted but the house isn't, our free  72-Hour Family Emergency Plan walks through the rest in about twenty minutes.

Twice a year, on the same weekend you change the batteries in your smoke detectors, is a good moment to check the car kit too. More on that in Be Ready Basics.