The Night-Time Breakdown on a Blind Stretch
It is 9:30 p.m. on a rural road with no street lighting. Your car loses power and rolls to a stop on the left-hand shoulder, half on the road and half on the grass. The road bends to the right about 40 metres behind you, so approaching drivers will not see you until late. Your hazard lights work. You have a warning triangle in the boot, a torch on your phone, and a reflective jacket. Traffic is light but includes occasional trucks. You are alone. Your phone has a weak signal.
1. List, in order, what you should do in the first two minutes, and explain why each step matters given the blind bend.
Read the worked answer
1. Get the hazard lights on immediately (if not already). They are your first warning to approaching traffic.
2. Put on the reflective jacket before leaving the car. You are invisible in dark clothing at night; the jacket makes you visible to drivers who will see the triangle before they see you.
3. Get passengers (if any) out on the safe side and well away from the road, behind a barrier or up the verge. Here you are alone, so this is about your own position.
4. Place the warning triangle roughly 45–50 metres behind the car - further than usual because the bend means drivers need earlier warning. Do not place it around the bend where you cannot be seen while placing it; place it on the straight as far back as is safe, and use the torch to be seen while doing so.
5. Call for help from a safe position off the carriageway, not from inside the car, and not standing in the road.
Why the bend matters: the triangle buys the approaching driver the seconds needed to react. The jacket keeps you visible while you set it. Standing off the road protects you if a driver reacts late.
2. A truck approaches and does not appear to have seen you. What should you do, and what should you not do?
Read the worked answer
Do: get yourself off the carriageway and behind a solid object or up the verge, away from the car. Do not try to wave the truck down from the road - a truck at speed cannot stop in the distance you can see, and you would be placing yourself in its path.
Do not: stand behind the car, stand in the road signalling, or try to push the car. A truck driver who sees you late will swerve or brake, and either reaction can put the vehicle into you or into oncoming traffic.
After it passes: reassess. If traffic is regular and the position is genuinely dangerous, consider whether you can move the car fully onto the grass, but only if you can do so safely and without standing in the road. Otherwise stay off the carriageway, keep the hazard lights on, and wait for help.
The principle: your car is replaceable; you are not. Put distance and a barrier between you and moving traffic.