Warning Others of a Breakdown

A lot of us have helped someone with a dead battery by "jump starting" their vehicle with jumper cables.

On a dark rainy night, broken down vehicle stopped on the shoulder of the roadway, a helpful passing motorist or a friend summoned pulls nose to nose up to the disabled vehicle.

In your mind,,,, the disabled vehicle is parked facing the same way traffic is flowing on the shoulder of that side of the roadway and the helpful motorist/friend is facing traffic on the wrong side of the road on the same shoulder of the road.  Not a big deal ?  Right ?

With today's vehicles, even if you turn off your headlights, your daytime running lights remain on.  Yes, if you think of it, some vehicles, can be run if the vehicle is started with the emergency brake engaged, but in our scenario, it's dark and rainy, likely some light is needed.

While the jumping is being conducted,,, what do we have ?  headlights on the extreme wrong side of the roadway.  Depending on the location of the two vehicles in relation to each other and the height of the vehicles, white headlights could be expected to be shinning toward oncome traffic on their side of the roadway.

This happened on the outskirts of Lumby BC, the on-coming vehicle's driver became confused and swerved to the right of the headlights, driving off the roadway.

Yes, the helpful motorist/friend is now liable for the collision.

Just looked it up Canadian tires have folding emergency triangles on for 10.00 and electronic flashing flares for 22.00.

Have to admit I drove for several years with nothing. Then starting my own company and taking a first aid course around the same time I saw the merit in them. In first aid you are told to secure the area. Can't provide much help when you are now part of the accident scene.

It wouldn't hurt that when you take your drivers written test that you are also given one regarding being first on the scene of an accident. This information could also be included with your insurance when you re-new. Everything depends on the number of people with you and how many on the scene but the first priority should be getting those triangles and flares out for other drivers. One should also park several meters away. Take the moderators advice and park 100 - 150 meters away with 4 way flashers, triangles and flares.

I find it so often when you come across an accident the first vehicles that arrive like to park beside the accident. Then they meander like cattle on the road. 

I understand the problem of jump starting. One can stand in front of the offending headlight when you see a car coming. Another thing that would help is to put your lights on low beam if you haven't already done. Suprising the number you see that do not dim headlights. And once you are connected you can turn on the four way flashers.

Complaint against emergency vehicles and their drivers. Put your low beams on or even use parking lights if conditions permit. Light bars. The LED lights are now so bright that they are blinding. Should be equipped with a lower intensity light once darkness arrives. And one of the stupidest idea is that of the alternating low/high beams flashings. When you talk to emergency personnel they have numerous complaints against the other drivers. First they complain that they do not slow down like they are suppose to, then in the next sentence the complaint is everyone wants to go so slow and gawk at the accident. Please get your stories straight. And please think of the other drivers and not try to blind them with bright lights.

I will be purchasing those electronic flares next time I am in a auto parts store. Excellent idea and way better than the flares I have now.

Here is a link to a video made of a car hitting a pick-up

This is a good example of not securing the scene of the accident.

There is no excuse for the driver of the car having the accident in the first place but we have a tow truck driver not bothering to mark the accident and the people originally involved also failing to take action. They had phoned for a tow truck and if they had any emergency equipment with them that should have been put out.

In the case of the tow truck driver his first priority should have been to put out emergency markings. He had driven by the scene and knew there was nothing out. Instead he talked to the people involved in the accident and then proceeded to call the OPP to report the accident. Whether or not his own emergency lights could be seen over the canopy of the pick-up is not really as issue. Markers should have been established on the ground giving other motorist a warning of problems ahead.

Thankfully no one was killed. But this is a good example of not what to do.

Many years back, I remember on a very dark and rainy, stormy night driving as briskly as seemed safe up the canyon with my friend Neil; remarkably, a guy in a camper truck passed us on one section, despite the terrible visibility.

After a few more turns in the highway, we saw something that only ever seems to occur on warning signs - a rock hazard! The darned cliff had broken away higher up, and some very large chunks of dark wet rock had landed over much of the roadway in our lane. The guy in the camper truck had stuffed his grill into the largest one, he wasn't going anywhere else that night, but they were OK in that vehicle.

But more to the point, there were quite a few cars and trucks using that highway that night, zero lighting, and only half a highway that could still be used.

So we re-postioned our van transversely across the blocked lane with all lights on and flashing, threw our black jackets in it (because we were wearing white T-shirts) and 'took over' that piece of Hwy 12 as 'flagpersons' at each end of the scene. 

Remarkably, though each of us were at transverse times shutting down traffic in each direction on a highway, as needed to guide all these drivers through the remaining clear roadway (there were chunks of basalt or whatever all over the place on the cliff side), we managed to keep the scene safe and moving. When a passing truck driver offered some of his flares, that made things easier; the cops showed up eventually - took them a while though (we'd asked truck drivers going by to get hold of them via CB Radio).

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Meanwhile, even earlier than that, I was working as a truck driver for a company based in Winnipeg, in totally different conditions. Summertime, and over 110 in the shade. There was a flatbed trailer that had just been dropped in the yard, and as I recall it had those paper sacks of lime as a load; whatever it was, it damn well spontaneously combusted right there. Or maybe someone threw a cigarette butt, we all smoked back then. Just a few flames at first, and I quickly grabbed a nearby extinguisher in the warehouse and jumped up onto the trailer to put the fire out. The extinguisher didn't work; but somebody else, seeing this, tossed me another one. Didn't work for more than a few seconds. By the time I got a properly working fire extinguisher, and could put out the burning sacks on the trailer, I was also putting out my own jeans.

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I only mention this stuff, because when you do need emergency equipment, you need it to work, you need it now, and you need to realize how best to use it.