Okay, so this happened to me a couple of days ago. I was in my winter beater, a 91 honda civic, and was driving northbound on the DVP merging on to the 401 heading east bound. I feel the car suddenly choke and without warning the engine died on me. Now picture this, I’m on the off ramp merging from the DVP on to the 401 and there’s really no time for me to get on to the right shoulder. In fact there was no time for me to even do anything at all, I tried coasting as far to the right that I possibly can, but unfortunately the car had already lost too much momentum due to the snow on the ground. So the car ended up stopping right in the middle of the lane where the merging ramp of the dvp meets the 401 east bound lane (not express). Needless to say, it was not the most ideal position to have your car die on you.
So imagine this, you’re in a crappy little civic, with your girlfriend, stuck in 5 lanes of free way and there is zero visiblity for anyone coming around that merging ramp. All I kept thinking was that highway scene from final destination where everyone just dies, and I burn alive from some rolled over semi-truck.
Remaining calm, I flip out my handy CAA card and call the emergency line. (there’s a normal service line if you’re not blocking traffic, stupid thing to point out, but it’ll make sense to you in a bit)
The emergency line was busy.
I hang up and call again…this time a machine kindly asked me to leave a message describing my emergency…greeeat
at this point, my gf is a bit stressed out…as a large truck narrowly missed our car swerving into the far left lane to avoid us.
I call again, I get an operator. Here’s how the conversation went:
me: “um…I’m in a emergency, my car stopped in the middle of the highway and I need a tow right now”
her: “okay sir, are you blocking the flow of traffic sir?”
me: “ummm…yes…sorta, I believe I’m blocking about 5 lanes of freeway traffic”
her: “okay, what is your location?”
me: “I’m on the merging ramp from DVP to 401 east”
her: “okay…what street is that on?”
me: “what? I’m on no street! I’m on the highway!”
her: “oh…okay…so you’re really blocking traffic then”
me: “yes”
her: “okay, where did you say you were again?”
this goes on for a bit, as I try to explain to her my exact location. After 20 minutes on the phone with her, I asked her how long a tow truck would be there to get me.
her: “can I ask you something, promise you won’t be mad?” ( I swear this is what she said)
me: “okay…what is it?”
her: “um…what does DVP stand for?”
at this point I was quite frustrated, and almost certain that I was going to be on the news as another morning rush hour fatality.
after a full 40 minutes on the phone with this woman, she assures me that a tow truck is on it’s way, and it’ll be 15 minutes. I hang up…and let out a deep sigh of relief. Help was finally on it’s way…
Then my phone rings. It’s her again.
her: “sorry sir, but I just needed to tell you that our service is a bit delayed, and another truck will be sent out, but it’ll be approximately 45 minutes”
at this point, i hung up, flagged down another tow truck and paid 145 bucks to get my car towed back to my garage.
tell me…why does CAA have an emergency line?
should come in handy cause im moving up to grand valley…could come in handy…but hopefully not.