Field Journal · Roadside safety
What To Do When Your Car Breaks Down: A Kansas City Roadside Safety Playbook
The first ninety seconds after a breakdown decide how the rest of it goes. This is the sequence our dispatchers walk callers through every night on I-35, I-70, and I-435 — where to put the car, when to stay in it, and exactly what to say when you call.
TL;DR — Quick Answer
What should you do when your car breaks down?
Get off the travel lanes if the car still moves, then turn on your hazards. Stay buckled inside the vehicle if you are on a highway shoulder — that is statistically safer than standing outside. Call for a tow with your exact location, then wait behind the guardrail only if you must exit on the passenger side.
The single most important decision
Almost every serious roadside injury comes down to one choice: whether to stand outside the vehicle. Drivers instinctively get out to look at the problem, and on a 70 mph shoulder that instinct is the dangerous one. Your car is a steel box with crumple zones. The shoulder is a strip of asphalt with none.
Unless you smell fuel, see smoke, or are stopped in a live travel lane, stay belted in your seat with the hazards on and make the call from there. A tow operator arriving to find you seated inside is the outcome we want.
Six steps, in order
Work through these in sequence. The first three happen in under a minute.
- 01
Keep momentum and aim for the right shoulder
The moment you feel a loss of power, signal right and coast. A rolling car is far easier to steer off the roadway than a stopped one. On I-435 or I-70, aim past the end of a guardrail if you can — that gives you a protected place to stand later.
- 02
Hazards on immediately
Turn on four-way flashers before you finish braking. At 70 mph an approaching driver covers 100 feet per second, and your flashers are the earliest warning they get.
- 03
Stay buckled inside the vehicle
On any highway shoulder, remaining belted inside your car is the safer default. Most roadside fatalities happen to people standing outside the vehicle. Exit only if you smell fuel, see smoke, or are stopped in a live travel lane.
- 04
Fix your exact location
Open your phone's map and read the nearest mile marker, exit number, or cross street. 'Northbound I-35 just past Exit 16' routes a truck far faster than a street address pulled from memory.
- 05
Call dispatch with vehicle details
Call (816) 888-8732 with your location, make and model, whether the wheels turn, and whether you are in a lane or on the shoulder. Those four facts decide which truck rolls.
- 06
Wait in the safest available spot
If you must be outside, exit through the passenger door and move behind a guardrail or up the embankment — never stand between your car and oncoming traffic, and never stand in front of the vehicle.
Where to stop matters more than you think
If the car is still rolling, spend that momentum buying a better position. In order of preference: an exit ramp, a wide right shoulder past the end of a guardrail, a left shoulder on a divided highway, and — last — wherever it dies. On the KC metro loops, shoulders narrow sharply near bridge abutments and overpasses. If you can coast another two hundred yards to open shoulder, do it.
Getting past the guardrail end matters because it gives you somewhere protected to stand if the situation changes. That is a small decision at 40 mph that pays off ten minutes later.
Missouri and Kansas move-over laws
Both states require approaching drivers to move over a lane for stopped emergency and recovery vehicles running flashing lights, or to slow substantially when a lane change is not possible. Both cover tow trucks. This is the legal backbone of how our operators set up a scene: the wrecker parks at an angle behind your vehicle, lights running, so it absorbs an impact instead of you.
It also means the truck may not park where you expect. If the operator asks you to stay put or move to a specific spot, there is a reason — they are reading traffic behind you that you cannot see.
What dispatch actually needs from you
Four facts determine which truck we send, and getting them right the first time is the difference between one roll-out and two:
- Location with direction. "Southbound I-435 near the 63rd Street exit" beats a street address. Mile markers are best.
- Vehicle year, make, and model. This sets the weight class and tells us whether a flatbed is required.
- Do the wheels roll and steer? A locked wheel or a seized transmission changes the equipment entirely.
- Lane or shoulder? A vehicle in a live lane is an emergency and may need law enforcement before we can work.
Have a destination in mind too — a shop, your home, a dealership. If you do not have one, say so and we will talk through options rather than guessing.
When it is not actually a tow
A good share of the calls we take do not need a tow at all. A dead battery is a jump start. A blowout on the shoulder is a tire change. Keys locked inside is a lockout, and an empty tank is fuel delivery. Each of those is a road-service call that costs far less than a hook and a mileage rate, and most are resolved without your car ever leaving the shoulder.
Describe the symptom rather than requesting a specific service, and let dispatch pick. You will frequently end up paying for less.
If the vehicle is off the roadway
Sliding into a ditch, soft shoulder, or median changes the job from a tow to a recovery. Do not try to drive out — spinning tires digs the vehicle in deeper and can damage the drivetrain. That is a winch-out, and it needs an operator with the right anchor points and angle. If another vehicle was involved, it becomes accident recovery and law enforcement should be on scene first.
Commercial vehicles are a different call
If you are driving anything with DOT numbers, air brakes, or a fifth wheel, the safety sequence is the same but the equipment is not. Set out your triangles per FMCSA spacing, stay off the traffic side of the unit, and tell dispatch the GVWR and whether you are loaded. Depending on the fault, our mobile semi and trailer repair may get you rolling without a recovery bill at all — see our guide on air brake faults and the repair-or-tow decision.
Broken down right now?
Stay in the vehicle. Call from where you sit — 24/7.
Dispatched from Liberty, MO across a 50-mile radius. Not sure what a tow runs? See light-duty pricing.