Warning devices for stopped vehicles

Explanation

A disabled vehicle must stay visible even on the shoulder. Turn on its hazard lights if they are available.

For a disabled car:

• When headlights are required on a divided highway, place one warning device 100 feet ahead and one 100 feet behind, centered in the occupied lane. Put another about 10 feet from the car on the traffic side, toward the nearest approaching traffic.
• In daytime, use two red flags: one about 100 feet ahead and one about 100 feet behind.
• If a curve, hilltop or other obstruction is within 500 feet, place a warning device at least 500 feet from the car.

For a disabled truck, bus or tractor-trailer on a traveled roadway or shoulder, display three conforming reflective triangles, at least six fuses or three liquid-burning flares. In the truck-and-bus directions, the divided-highway device goes 200 feet from the vehicle. Do not apply that 200-foot figure to the earlier passenger-car rule; the car rule uses 100 feet.

Example

At night, a car stops on a divided highway with no nearby curve or hill. The driver turns on the hazard lights, then places warning devices 100 feet ahead, 100 feet behind and about 10 feet away on the traffic side toward approaching traffic.

Common mistake

Using the truck-and-bus 200-foot distance for a passenger car. The manual’s passenger-car paragraph says 100 feet ahead and behind; the later 200-foot sentence belongs to the truck, bus and tractor-trailer directions.

What the manual says

The disabled vehicle’s hazard lights, if available, should be turned on.

In the daytime, drivers of disabled cars must display two red flags: one approximately 100 feet in front of the car and the other approximately 100 feet behind it.

If your vehicle is disabled on a divided highway, the device must be 200 feet from your vehicle.