Your car · Breakdowns and accidents

How to Handle a Breakdown or an Accident Abroad

Checked 4 October 2026 on the ministries', the motorway operators' and the motoring clubs' own pages · skynomad

A breakdown on a French autoroute at 22:00 costs €226.50 for the tow alone: the €151 day price plus 50% for the night. That is the regulated price, and nobody can charge you more for it.

The money is the smaller risk. The hard shoulder is where people get hurt, so the first rules on this page are about where to stand, not whom to call.

Get Behind the Barrier Before You Call Anyone

Hazard lights on as soon as something feels wrong. Put the vest on inside the car, then get out on the side away from the traffic. Austria's motorway operator, ASFINAG, says to wait behind the barrier, and so do Rijkswaterstaat in the Netherlands and the Swiss motoring club TCS.

Then place the triangle, if it is safe to walk back. The distance changes with the country:

In the Netherlands, park close to the barrier with the front wheels turned towards it. Get everyone out and behind it before anything else.

Use the Call Box: It Tells Them Where You Are

Germany and Austria put an emergency call box every 2 km. The arrows on the small roadside posts point to the nearest one, and the call itself gives your exact position. On the Italian motorway we checked, SOS columns stand at about the same spacing.

Outside France, you can also call on a mobile: give the road number, the direction and the nearest marker. In the Netherlands that is the hectometre post; Rijkswaterstaat also answers on 0800-8002. In Germany, the kilometre signs at the roadside do the same job.

Many cars now do part of this for you. Every new car model approved in the EU since 31 March 2018 has eCall, which dials 112 by itself after a serious crash and sends the car's position.

On a French Autoroute, Expect a Fixed Price and an Approved Firm

Call from the emergency call box, not from your mobile: the French government says to use only the boxes. You cannot call your own garage: only the firm approved for that stretch of motorway may come, and it must arrive within 30 minutes.

The prices are set by the state each year. From 1 January 2026 they are:

Italy also limits who may come: only firms authorised by the motorway company may repair or tow on it.

Save the Breakdown Number for Each Country on Your Route

Your own breakdown cover comes first: its number is on the policy. These are the motoring clubs' own numbers, as they publish them, with 112 for anything urgent.

Where a country shows no club number, we could not confirm one on the club's own site. Call 112, or the number on your cover.

Call the Police When the Law Says So

The rule changes at the border. Some countries want the police only when someone is hurt; others set a damage threshold.

The European Consumer Centres add a simpler rule for the rest. Call the police if the accident is serious, if the other driver will not cooperate, if they drive off, or if you are in a hire car.

Fill In the European Accident Statement Together

The form is standardised across Europe, so each driver can fill it in in their own language. You fill in your side in English, the other driver fills in theirs in Italian, and both insurers read the same layout.

Ask your insurer for a blank one before you leave and keep it in the glovebox. Fill it in at the scene, together, and sign only what you agree with.

Make Way for the Ambulance in Germany, Austria and Seven Others

In a jam on a multi-lane road, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary expect you to open an emergency corridor for the ambulance and the police. Austria fines up to €726 for not doing it and up to €2,180 for blocking it, according to both ÖAMTC and ADAC.

Italy and the Netherlands have no such rule. Move over anyway when you hear the siren.

Tow Only as Far as the Next Exit

A tow rope gets a car off the road, not home. In Germany you may tow a car that broke down on the motorway only as far as the next exit, on a rope no longer than 5 m, with hazard lights on both cars.

An electric car should not be towed on its wheels at all. The electric car page explains why.

Get behind the barrier first and call second. Every number and rule on this page comes from a ministry's, an operator's or a motoring club's own page, read on 4 October 2026.

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