What to do if your car breaks down on I-285

1. Keep moving if you safely can

The instinct is to stop the instant something goes wrong. Resist it for a few seconds if the vehicle is still moving under control. A car limping another two hundred yards to a wide shoulder, an exit ramp gore area or an off-ramp is dramatically safer than one stopped where the shoulder pinches to nothing.

The exception is anything that makes continuing dangerous in itself: a blowout that is affecting steering, smoke, a fire smell, or a temperature gauge in the red. An overheating engine can be permanently destroyed in the distance between two exits — that one, you stop.

2. Hazards on, and get right

Hazard lights go on the moment you know there is a problem, while you are still rolling. Get to the right shoulder, all the way past the white line, with the wheels straight. If there is a guardrail or a barrier and there is room beyond it, that is where you want the vehicle.

If you end up stopped on the left shoulder — it happens, particularly on the top end — understand that this is the worse of the two positions. Traffic passes on your right at speed, there is usually less room, and getting out on the driver's side puts you in a live lane. If you are on the left with no room, that is a 911 call, not a wait-and-see.

3. Decide whether to get out — carefully

This is the decision people get wrong, and it is the one that hurts them. The default is: stay inside, seatbelt fastened, doors locked. A modern car is a substantial steel box, and it is a far better place to be than standing beside it.

Get out only if you can do all of these: exit on the passenger side, away from traffic, and get well clear of the vehicle — ideally behind a guardrail or up an embankment. Standing in front of your car, or between it and traffic, is the single most dangerous place on the whole road. So is standing in the shoulder looking at your phone.

If there is any smell of fuel, any smoke, or any sign of fire, that flips entirely: get everyone out and well away, upwind, immediately.

4. Work out where you actually are

Nobody has an address on an interstate, and this is where most calls waste five minutes. What a dispatcher needs from you, in this order:

1. Which road. I-285.
2. Which direction. On the Perimeter, "inner loop" and "outer loop" are the local terms, but "heading towards the airport" or "heading towards Decatur" works perfectly — do not get stuck trying to remember the technical word.
3. The last exit you passed. This is the single most useful thing you can say. If you can see the next exit sign ahead, that is nearly as good.
4. Anything visible. A mile marker, an overpass, a large sign, a landmark.

Better still: share your location from your phone. A dropped pin removes the entire problem. Both major phone platforms can text your position in a couple of taps, and it is worth knowing how before you ever need it.

5. Call — and know who to call for what

Call 911 if the vehicle is in or partly in a live lane, if anyone is hurt, if there is smoke or fire, or if you simply feel unsafe where you are stopped. Georgia DOT runs HERO units on the metro interstates who can protect a scene, and getting a marked vehicle with lights behind you changes your situation immediately.

Call a tow once you are safe. Have ready: your location as above, what the vehicle is doing, and the year, make, model and drivetrain. Here is the full list of what to have ready — it turns a ten-minute call into a two-minute one.

6. While you wait

Stay belted in. Keep the hazards running. Do not attempt to change a wheel on the shoulder of I-285 — a tire change here is one of the most dangerous things a driver can choose to do, and it is exactly what roadside tire service exists for. If you have a warning triangle and you can place it safely from behind the barrier, it helps; if placing it means walking into the shoulder, skip it.

And keep in mind: Georgia's Move Over law requires other drivers to move over or slow down for stopped vehicles with flashing lights. Most will. It only takes one who does not.

Where this usually ends

Some of these are a tow, and some genuinely are not. A flat, a dead battery, an empty tank or a snapped belt can often be resolved where the vehicle sits — which on I-285 usually means getting it somewhere safe first and then dealing with it. If the vehicle was overheating, or it will not turn over at all, that is far more likely to be a truck. The way to find out which you have is to describe the symptoms honestly on the phone.