• Roadside Assistance will call a tow truck for you.truck image by Goran Bogicevic from Fotolia.com
  
  Roadside Assistance is helpful service provided by many car companies and insurance companies, allowing people to call an operator, who will send a tow truck to wherever they are or send the police if they have been in an accident. This service takes the worry out of being stuck on the side of the road trying to figure out how to get yourself, your passengers and your vehicle to safety.
  
  

Establish the Problem

• If you need to call for roadside assistance, it is important to establish with the operator what exactly the problem is, if you can. This will then be relayed to the tow truck driver or emergency officials and will make their job much easier and allow them to help you much more quickly. This may mean popping the hood to see what is wrong or getting out of your car to look at the damage or describe what may be wrong with the vehicle. However, this does not mean that you should put yourself in harm's way if you've been in an accident or do not feel comfortable getting out of the car.
  
  

Describe Your Location

• Tell the operator where exactly you were driving and where you think you may be on the road. This will help the operator call the closest tow truck company or emergency medical services so that they can get to you as quickly as possible. Turning on your flashers or your headlights and, if you feel safe doing so, put out reflective triangles behind your car to help the tow truck driver find you in a shorter amount of time. Once you have described your location and made your car visible, it's best to stand outside of your car, with the car between you and road, unless you have pulled over on a busy freeway. In that case you should stay in your car.
  
  

Have Information

• Always keep a copy of all the information that you need for your roadside assistance in two different places. One should be in your wallet or purse, so that it is easily accessible on your person, and the other should be in the glove compartment of your vehicle, so that if you don't have your wallet or purse with you when you need roadside assistance, you will still have copies. This should include all the numbers that the operator may need to access your account, along with the expiration date and other details about what the roadside assistance covers.