Your Car Dies in the Middle Lane of a Busy Highway, What Would You Do? Take the Poll!

What would you do if stalled in the middle lane of a busy highway?

  • Sit in the car and hope that help comes before someone crashes into me.

    Votes: 4 23.5%

  • Get out of the car and try to make a dash to the left or right emergency lanes on foot.

    Votes: 2 11.8%

  • Get out, open my hood so people know I'm broke down, then sit in the car.

    Votes: 1 5.9%

  • Other

    Votes: 7 41.2%

  • I don't know what I'd do.

    Votes: 3 17.6%
  • Total voters
    17
SeaBreeze

SeaBreeze

Endlessly Groovin'
Location
USA
Lets say you're driving in the middle lane of a busy high traffic highway and your car dies, you can't get to the left or right emergency lane because you have no power. Cars are speeding by, going around you, honking in frustration, etc. What would you do in that situation, I think we'd all immediately put on our emergency flashers, but what next? Take the poll.
 

That's not allowed... this is a true story as best I recall. Years back to alleviate traffic problems in Atlanta they decided to increase the number of lanes by narrowing the width of the lanes and doing away with the left hand emergency lane. When asked what you were suppose to do if your car quit running while you were in the left hand lanes, they basically said that if your car is going to quit running you should stay in the right hand lanes.
 
That's crazy Dpwspringer :D, if I knew my car was going to quit running I'd probably avoid the highway completely, hard to stay in the right lane if you're driving and need to get over for a left lane exit, etc. :drive:
 

SeaBreeze said:
That's crazy Dpwspringer :D, if I knew my car was going to quit running I'd probably avoid the highway completely, hard to stay in the right lane if you're driving and need to get over for a left lane exit, etc. :drive:
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Yep, that's crazy. There is no good answer. You don't have a lot of options. The flashers are good, assuming they work. You likely are not going to have power steering or brakes so you will have to manhandle those. You can either stay in your land and hope for the best or try to edge over to get off the road and hope for the best... of course you have better odds going downhill than up for that. You will have to be lucky and skilled to walk away unscathed because the odds aren't good.
 
4 way flashers, stay in my car and use my cell phone to call 911 to alert highway patrol & emergency service. More than likely cars following you will be trapped behind you affording you at least a little buffer against traffic. But as we've probably all seen some nut is texting or talking on their cell phone and isn't paying attention and can slam into stalled cars.

This is a hypothetical and we are in 2017. I don't know anyone that doesn't have a cell phone.
 
STAY IN THE CAR!!! Turn on your flashers. Call 911 is you have a cell phone. Many people are killed once they exit their stalled vehicle. You are less likely to be killed sitting in the vehicle than being hit with no protection at all.
 
I agree with the others, keep your seat belt on, hit the flashers, make the call to 911 and say a little prayer or two!

I have had this type of thing happen twice but I've always had enough momentum to head for the shoulder of the road before the car stopped rolling.
 
I don't want to be in that car when an 18 wheeler runs it over and flattens it.

Hit the hazard flashers on the way out and get yourself off the roadway.
 
It happened to me not too long ago and I did the first option. I guess I did what most would do but I was a nervous wreck thinking someone was going to smash into me. I was on my way to the groomer to pick up Suzy and had to call the groomer and ask her to bring Suzy to me. A man tried to push my car out of the way but something was wrong with my car in the front end and it wouldn't budge. It turned out okay in the end, though.
 
Turn on the flashers and then start waving a bra out the window.....I'll guarantee that you'll have all the help from truckers and good ol' boys that you need PDQ.

Of course if you're male and do this you may get you're butt kicked when a 7' 280 pound muscle bound trucker stops and then realizes that you're a guy. :)
 
It depends on the speed and highway and if there emergency shoulders or lanes on either side of the highway. I was lucky the only time it happened to me I was able to coast to the shoulder without an accident. The car just quiting is also a situational awareness situation. Too many people point and shoot preoccupied about what ever when driving. When your engine stops you'll know.
 
It's pretty unlikely that a car would just die and suddenly seize up in place. If the engine suddenly cuts off, and you have no power, but the car is still moving...the sensible thing to do would be to turn on the RH turn signals and begin to move to the outside lane, and coast to a stop as far onto the right shoulder as possible. Certainly, this would require some quick and clear thinking....but to allow the car to coast to a stop in the middle of the road is just asking for trouble.
 
Don M. said:
It's pretty unlikely that a car would just die and suddenly seize up in place. If the engine suddenly cuts off, and you have no power, but the car is still moving...the sensible thing to do would be to turn on the RH turn signals and begin to move to the outside lane, and coast to a stop as far onto the right shoulder as possible. Certainly, this would require some quick and clear thinking....but to allow the car to coast to a stop in the middle of the road is just asking for trouble.
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Some lanes around Atlanta have 6(?) or so lanes in each direction with no left hand emergency lane, just a concrete wall/barrier. If you can't make it to the right side where the emergency lane is it is going to be a bad day for you... and if you start from the left most lane you don't have a chance in heavy traffic. Because of the heavy traffic, in some areas they have even designated portions of the right hand emergency lane as a travel lane during certain times of the day. They have added lots and lots of traffic cameras and have a fleet of HERO vans to dispatch. Those HERO vans are pretty neat and necessary.
 
IKE nailed it. That's why even though I'm a guy, I always carry a black laced bra in my car.
 
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