Two steps you can take to ensure you are prepared for a breakdown
If your car is quite old or temperamental and you are concerned about the possibility of it breaking down, here are two steps you can take to ensure that you are prepared for this challenging situation.
Keep the contact details of a towing company in your vehicle at all times
Many drivers who have never dealt with a breakdown before mistakenly assume that, if they were to ever find themselves in this type of situation, they could simply flag down a passing motorist and ask them for help, or walk to a nearby town and seek assistance there.
This type of assumption could leave you stranded for a very long time.
The reality is that your car could easily break down on a quiet, rural road, where there is little to no traffic, and no towns within walking distance. If this happens and you do not have the contact details for a towing company, you could end up waiting hours upon hours for someone to rescue you.
Furthermore, relying on a stranger to help you could be quite dangerous, as the person who stops could potentially have malicious intentions.
As such, it is absolutely essential to keep the name and contact details of a towing company in your car at all times and to call them as soon as your car stops functioning. Whilst it might be tempting to wait for a kind stranger to assist you so that you don't have to pay for a tow truck, this could be a very risky decision that could have unpleasant consequences.
Create a breakdown kit
It is extremely important to make sure that you have a breakdown kit in your car, consisting of all of the things you will need if you find yourself stuck on the side of the road with a broken-down vehicle. This kit should include bottled water, a foil blanket, sunscreen, a reflective warning triangle, a flashlight, a tyre-changing kit, non-perishable food, first-aid supplies and an empty fuel container.
You may feel that a creating a kit like this is unnecessary because you have the contact details of a towing company in your phone and won't, therefore, have to wait very long for help if your vehicle does end up breaking down. However, the truth is that if your car breaks down during a bout of bad weather or in an extremely rural area, it could take quite a while for the driver of the tow truck to locate your car and rescue you.
If you don't have a kit in your car and you are forced to wait an hour or more for the towing service to arrive, you could end up getting hurt.
For example, if your vehicle malfunctions in an isolated area on a very hot day and you don't have bottled water and sunscreen, you could become severely dehydrated, get sunburnt or develop sunstroke.
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