Breakdown Safety and Survival

If you break down on the highway:

·         Get your vehicle off of the roadway as far as you can away from any possibility that someone could lose control or not see and collide with your parked vehicle.

o   Wherever possible nurse it off the highway

§  Park behind a guard rail, an overpass abutment, large tree or other obstacle that will afford you some level of deflection from an out of control vehicle.

§  If you are on an off ramp, never stop on the outside of a curve. If the vehicle comes to rest on the outside of a curve:

·         Wait until it is safe (no vehicles coming)

·         Put your vehicle in neutral and roll backward or forward to the inside most are of the curve (the apex).

o   Put your hazard lights (flashers) on

·         If you are not able to get the vehicle safely off of the roadway as described two sections above.

o   Get out of your vehicle and stand far away from your vehicle and the roadway.

§  Stay to the apex side of the curve even when you are out of the vehicle. Other vehicles often lose control and strike parked vehicles as a result of rubber necking or distraction.

§  Again, try to stay behind heavy, large objects that will deflect out of control vehicles from hitting you.