The summer month’s can be busy times on the roads for holidays makers, with so many drivers embarking on journeys across the country, to and from their destinations.
Whilst our team at Stourbridge Automotive, always promote making a thorough check of your vehicle before embarking on a long journey, to alleviate the eventuality of a vehicle breakdown, sometimes the inevitable can unfortunately still happen.
Knowing what to do in this situation is critical for keeping yourself as the driver and fellow passengers safe.
Steps to handling a vehicle breakdown
- If you suddenly feel that the vehicle is facing a fault when driving, then pop your hazard lights on to alert other drivers that you are in a difficult situation, reduce your speed and pull over as soon as it is safe to do so.
- Turn off the engine ignition but leave the hazard lights on and get out of the vehicle. Walk to a safe place and call your vehicle breakdown company for assistance.
- Never try to open the bonnet or look under the vehicle, to try to diagnose the problem or fix yourself.
- The breakdown company will want to know the make and model of the vehicle and some location information as to your whereabouts. Therefore, if you can see any road names or landmarks, they can be useful to determine your exact position. The breakdown company may also be able to find the information through the smartphone GPS from which you are calling from. They will also want to know basic details in terms of the vehicle fault so that they can quickly determine what the problem might be.
- It is important that you inform the vehicle breakdown company if you are on your own or if you have children with you, so that they can alert you to their teams as a priority.
- They are highly trained to manage this type of situation and so it is important to wait for them to give you further advice as to how to manage the next steps.
- At all times it is important to keep your phone with you and if you feel at any point, whilst you wait, that you are in a vulnerable situation then you must alert the police, who will be able to assist you until your vehicle is recovered or further assistance is available through the breakdown company.
Finding Further Support
For more information on keeping your vehicle safe or if you are aware of a fault on your vehicle which requires a repair, then please contact Stourbridge Automotive. We are here to help owner / drivers of Audi, BMW, BMW MINI, Mercedes, Jaguar, Land Rover & Range Rover with servicing, maintenance and repairs.