Breakdown in Heavy Rain on the M6
You are driving a 2016 diesel estate on the M6 at 120 km/h in lane 2 with two passengers, on the way to Galway. It is raining heavily and spray cuts visibility to about 80 metres. Without warning the battery warning light comes on, the power steering stiffens and the engine begins to lose power. There is a car close behind you. The next exit is 2 km ahead and the hard shoulder is continuous, though narrow in places where it crosses a bridge. Your phone has 40 per cent battery, and you have a high-vis vest and a warning triangle in the boot.
1. Set out the sequence of actions from the first warning light to a safe stop.
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The car is still moving, so momentum is your main asset - use it to get off the carriageway.
- Mirrors and signal: check the left mirror and indicate left.
- Ease off, do not brake hard. The car behind is close and the road is wet; a sharp stop risks being hit.
- Cross lane 1 when there is a clear gap, and continue onto the hard shoulder. Do not stop in lane 2 or in lane 1.
- Stop as far left as possible, with the wheels turned slightly to the left so the car would roll away from the carriageway if it were struck.
- Hazard lights on immediately, sidelights on as well in the poor visibility.
- Keep seatbelts on until you have decided it is safe to get out.
Could you reach the exit? Two kilometres with failing power, spray at 80 metres and a narrow bridge section is too far - the hard shoulder is the nearer safe target. If the exit had been a few hundred metres away, taking it would have been the better choice.
2. What should you do about the warning triangle, the high-vis vest, and where people should stand?
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Leave the triangle in the boot. On a motorway, walking back along a live carriageway to place it puts you in exactly the danger you are trying to avoid, and RSA guidance is not to use warning triangles on motorways.
Put the high-vis on before opening the door. Get passengers out through the left-hand doors only, away from the traffic, and take them behind the crash barrier or up the embankment. Never stand between the car and the traffic, never gather at the rear of the car, and keep children and animals under control.
For help: use a motorway emergency phone if one is genuinely close and safely reached, because it connects directly to the control centre and identifies your location. Otherwise call 112 or 999 from your mobile and give the motorway number, the direction of travel, the nearest exit and the marker post number. Those details decide how quickly someone finds you in heavy rain.
3. Before you reach the hard shoulder the engine dies and the car stops partly in lane 1. What now?
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The priorities change, because the car is now an obstacle in a live lane.
- Hazard lights on. If you cannot get out safely, keep seatbelts on and stay in the car, because a belted occupant is better protected than someone standing on a carriageway.
- Get out on the left as soon as there is a gap in traffic, then move well away from the carriageway, behind the barrier if there is one.
- Do not stand behind or beside the car, do not try to push it along the carriageway, and do not attempt to reverse along the hard shoulder to reach an exit. Reversing on a motorway is illegal and extremely dangerous.
- Call 112 or 999 immediately with your location details, and tell them the car is in a live lane so the incident is prioritised.
- Do not try to wave traffic down from a live lane, and do not set out cones or a triangle.
If there is no barrier and no safe gap, staying belted in with hazards on may be the least bad option; that judgement depends on the traffic and the ground beside the road.