Crashes and breakdowns when you're far from home

25 May, 2023

If your car broke down or you had a crash on a country road a long way from home, would you know what to do?

Experiencing a vehicle breakdown or crash when you’re driving in a regional or remote area is especially distressing.

Closer to home, where help is usually not far away, the actions you need to take immediately after an incident are much clearer. But long distances can complicate the processes if you’re unprepared.

So exactly how do you deal with a crash or breakdown when you’re far from home? We’ll start with vehicle breakdowns.

What do you do if you break down while on a road trip?

Although it’s even more inconvenient to break down when you’re off on a driving holiday, if you’re not too far from a larger regional centre, there’s no need to panic. If you have a vehicle breakdown service, get in touch and let them know the exact location.

If you have RAC Roadside Assistance, call 13 11 11 and the consultant will organise a technician to come out to you from the nearest regional hub. If you don’t have Roadside Assistance, you can still call RAC and join on the spot. You’ll pay a little more in this situation, but it could mean the difference between spoiling your holiday or getting back on the road. Just bear in mind that in regional areas, Roadside Assistance support may take longer to get to you than in the Perth metropolitan area.

What happens if you break down but don’t know exactly where you are?

If your vehicle breaks down on a regional or remote road and you have no reference point to the exact location, contact your roadside assistance provider and they should have a way of pinpointing where you are. When you call RAC, the consultant will ask you a series of questions to narrow down your location, such as where you’ve travelled from, what your intended destination is, how long you’ve been travelling for and the name of the last town you passed through.

If you have a mapping app on your phone, you can check the location yourself and let the consultant know. Alternatively, RAC can send you an SMS locator. This is a text message with a link that you click which then sends us your coordinates so we can pinpoint your location. Just remember you will still need to have a mapping app on your phone to use this service.

If your phone is out of range, you may need to wait until someone passes, flag them down from a safe place on the roadside and ask them to contact RAC with your name, vehicle details and approximate location.

If you’re in a very remote location and have phone coverage, RAC can also do an over-the-phone diagnosis to determine the extent of the issue before sending a tow vehicle. Just be aware that the Standard level of Roadside Assistance doesn’t have extended towing benefits. Classic, Ultimate and Ultimate Plus all do.

If you only have Standard membership, you’d be entitled to your regular towing limit of 80km round-trip coverage, which may cover you if a service provider is not far away. Otherwise, you’ll need to pay for the additional mileage if the operator is more than an 80km round trip away – that’s for both Roadside Assistance patrol callouts and for tow vehicles.

In a remote location where the only option is to tow, the RAC consultant would help to make arrangements for this over the phone. Alternatively, if your vehicle has been attended by Roadside Assistance and the problem can’t be resolved, they would then organise a tow for you.

So that you’re not left stranded, members are able to travel in the tow truck to a safe place where you can make other arrangements. Depending on your level of breakdown cover, you may be eligible to have taxi costs and car hire covered so keep any of those receipts.

Be aware that if the breakdown is in a remote area, it may take some time to reach you. Always be prepared when travelling into remote areas with a spare tyre in good condition, enough water and food and ideally an appropriate communications system.

What if you break down on a regional or remote road in another state?

In the event of a breakdown in an interstate location, the local motoring organisation would arrange a service provider to attend. In Victoria contact RACV, in NSW NRMA, RACQ in Queensland, RAA in South Australia, RACT in Tasmania and AANT in the Northern Territory.

If your vehicle needs to be towed, the other club’s roadside assistance service would arrange this. If you don’t have extended benefits for towing, the interstate club would arrange towing within your towing entitlement. You’d then need to pay any excess mileage over what your membership entitles you to.

In the event of a major breakdown, the tow would be arranged by RAC with a provider closest to your breakdown location. You’ll need to nominate where the vehicle is taken for repairs.

As with a breakdown in WA attended by a tow truck, you can travel in the tow truck to a safe place if there is no other transport available at the scene. Depending on your level of roadside assistance, you may be eligible to have taxi costs and car hire covered, so keep receipts from these services.

What if you’re involved in a crash in regional or remote area?

Crashes are a very different scenario. The first thing you’ll need to do, if you’re able, is to determine if any emergency services need to attend.

If you don’t require medical assistance (or anyone else at the scene) and your car needs to be towed, the next step is to call your insurer. They should be able to provide details about how to organise a tow, or will organise it for you. If you have RAC’s comprehensive car insurance, call the claims team and a consultant will locate a regional tow operator to tow your vehicle and then guide you through the next steps in making a claim.

In a crash on a regional or remote road where you’re unsure of your exact location, depending on the mobile phone coverage, you can provide co-ordinates from Google Maps or a similar app to your insurer. They can then send a tow truck to search the road.

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If you have injuries and are transported from the scene by emergency services, to the best of your ability at the time, you should take note of the location or check with emergency services where the vehicle is located. In a situation where there are injuries, you should prioritise getting medical help, then call your insurer where possible.

What happens if you’re in another state?

A crash on a regional or remote road in another state, where the vehicle is able to be driven, is considered a driveable claim and isn’t as urgent. You should continue on, have the vehicle checked where possible to ensure it is safe to drive and then lodge an insurance claim when convenient.

In the event that you’re not able to drive the car, you should call your insurer to lodge a claim and to arrange a tow.

As with a crash in remote or regional WA, if you’re injured and are transported by emergency services, you should prioritise getting medical help, then call your insurer when possible. Remember also to get the details of any other drivers involved, as you would in any crash.

If you are involved in an interstate crash and services such as towing are used, remember to keep your receipts from those services.

Some insurers may provide some coverage for other out of pocket costs in this situation.

Under RAC’s car insurance, if you’re in another state, you may be eligible for a ‘cost to complete journey’ benefit of $500 and a temporary accommodation benefit of up to $250 a night, for a maximum of four nights, if you’re unable to drive your car.

Generally speaking, these benefits are only covered by comprehensive car insurance, however with third party-only policies, there is an ‘uninsured vehicle extension’ which covers a vehicle up to $5000 in an incident where the at-fault party is uninsured and identifiable.