Your car just broke down in Pinellas County. Here is what to do.

A breakdown is mostly a safety problem for the first few minutes and only then a car problem. The order below is the one that keeps people out of trouble, and it is worth reading now rather than on the shoulder of the Skyway with traffic going past at seventy.

First, get off the road if the car still moves

If the engine is running and the car will steer, take the next exit, the next side street, or the widest piece of shoulder you can reach. A car that is fully off the traffic lane is a different situation from one that is half in it. If you have a choice, stop somewhere flat and open rather than on a bend or the crest of a bridge.

If the car will not move at all, leave it where it is. Pushing a dead car across live lanes is how people get hurt.

Second, make yourself visible

• Hazard lights on, immediately, before anything else.
• Wheels turned away from the traffic lane if you are on a slope.
• Get out on the side away from traffic, never the traffic side.
• Stand behind the guardrail or well off the shoulder, not next to the car and not in front of it.

That last one matters more than people expect. A stopped car on a shoulder gets hit far more often than most drivers imagine, and standing in front of it puts you between two tons of metal and whatever is coming.

Third, work out what you actually need

Not every breakdown is a tow. A dead battery is a jump start. A flat is a tire change if you have a spare. An empty tank is a fuel delivery. Keys locked inside is a lockout. Any of those gets you moving again in one visit and costs less than loading the car onto a bed.

If the engine will not turn over after a jump, if there is smoke, if the temperature gauge is buried, or if anything is leaking underneath, stop trying and get it towed. A short tow is cheaper than a new engine.

Fourth, know what to tell whoever you call

• Where you are. A cross street, a mile marker, or the pin from your phone.
• What you are driving, and whether it is lowered, all-wheel drive, or has a dead battery.
• Whether the wheels still roll and the steering unlocks.
• Whether you are in a safe spot or exposed in a live lane.

Those four answers decide which truck is right and how fast someone needs to get to you. Having them ready turns a five-minute phone call into a one-minute one.

A note about where you break down

Pinellas is a peninsula, so a lot of local breakdowns happen in the worst possible places: the causeways, the bridge approaches, and the narrow beach roads where there is no shoulder at all. If you are on a bridge or a causeway with nowhere to pull off, stay in the car with your seatbelt on and the hazards going, and say so when you call. That changes the answer.