Broken Down on I-285 or the Connector? How to Stay Safe Until Help Arrives

If the car can still move, get off the road

The most dangerous place to be is stopped in a live travel lane. If your car is still rolling at all when trouble starts — a tire going soft, a warning light, a stumble — your first priority is to get off the highway: take the next exit or ramp, or coast onto the widest part of the right shoulder you can reach. A flat tire driven a few hundred yards to a safe spot can be replaced; a car stopped in a moving lane on I-285 cannot be made safe at all.

Stuck on the shoulder: the safety order

Once you are as far right as you can get, turn on your hazard lights immediately so traffic sees you. On Atlanta's fast interstates — I-75, I-85, I-285, I-20, and the Downtown Connector — the safest place is usually inside the car with your seatbelt fastened, not standing beside it. Exiting toward traffic is how shoulder accidents happen; if you must get out, leave from the passenger side, away from the lanes.

If you can do it safely, turn your wheels away from the roadway and keep your foot off the brake so brake lights do not blind approaching drivers at night. Then stay put and let help come to you.

Then get help moving

Georgia runs HERO units on the metro interstates that assist disabled vehicles, and you can reach the state's traffic line by dialing 511. For the actual fix — a flat, a jump, or a lockout — call 404-606-6298 or request help online. Highway shoulder calls on I-75, I-85, I-285, and the Connector are some of our most common jobs, and we position our vehicle to shield the work area when we arrive.

What we can fix right there on the highway

If your car has a usable spare, we change the flat on the shoulder and get you rolling. A dead battery gets a jump and a charging check. A lockout gets damage-free entry. All three mean you drive away without waiting on a tow. One exception that is never a wait-and-see: if a child or pet is locked inside on a hot Georgia day, call 911 first, then call us — heat builds dangerously fast and those calls get top priority.