If Your Vehicle Breaks Down

1. Turn on your hazard lights immediately, even before you’ve fully stopped moving.
2. Pull over onto the shoulder, as far right as safely possible and fully clear of the active travel lane.
3. If it’s safe to exit, get out on the side away from traffic (usually the passenger side) and move well clear of the vehicle, ideally behind a guardrail or barrier if one’s available.
4. Call for roadside assistance or emergency services and stay somewhere visible but safe while you wait.
5. If you carry a warning triangle or flares, place them behind your vehicle at a distance that gives approaching traffic real time to react.

This is also exactly when other drivers’ “move over” obligations apply — approaching traffic is required to slow down and shift lanes for a stopped vehicle with hazards on, which is one more reason staying visible (not hidden behind your own car) matters.

If You’re Being Pulled Over by Police

1. Signal and slow down as soon as you notice the lights, and look for the nearest genuinely safe spot — if the shoulder is narrow or you’re on a bridge, it’s fine to continue briefly to a wider, better-lit area while clearly signaling your intent.
2. Turn off your engine, and if it’s dark, turn on your interior light.
3. Turn down the music so you can hear the officer clearly, and they can hear you.
4. Roll down your window and keep your hands visible on the steering wheel. Stay in the vehicle unless told otherwise — the same goes for any passengers.
5. Don’t reach for documents until asked, and say out loud where you’re reaching (“my licence is in my wallet, in my pocket”) before you move.
6. Provide your licence, registration, and insurance when requested — you’re required to. Beyond identifying yourself, you’re not obligated to answer further questions, and you can politely ask why you were stopped if the officer hasn’t said.

Side by Side

Both situations reward the same underlying instinct: be predictable. Sudden movements, hidden hands, or trying to handle things quickly all read as more alarming than just being calm and visible, even when you’re just being efficient.

Preparing Before You Ever Need This

• Keep your licence, registration, and insurance somewhere you can find quickly — not buried under everything else in the glovebox
• Carry a warning triangle or reflective flares if your vehicle doesn’t already include one
• Save your roadside assistance number in your phone before a breakdown, not while stressed on the shoulder
• Keep a phone charger in the vehicle — a dead phone during a breakdown turns a manageable situation into a much harder one

Making the Steps Automatic

The value in reading this now, rather than during an actual breakdown or stop, is that the steps become familiar before you’re under pressure to remember them. A quick mental run-through every so often — what would I actually do right now if this happened — keeps the sequence available even when adrenaline makes clear thinking harder.

The Bottom Line

Both a breakdown and a police stop are manageable, ordinary situations that just happen to feel bigger in the moment. Hazards on, get visible but safe, stay predictable, and follow the same short sequence every time — the steps don’t change based on how nervous you feel.