If you have never had a car fail on you, the worst part is not the car. It is the thirty seconds where you do not know what you are supposed to do, on a road where everyone behind you is going faster than you are.
So: the order.
First, the distinction that matters
Najm is for collisions. It exists to document an accident and settle the insurance claim, and if another vehicle is involved that is who you contact — on 920000560 or through the Najm app, and within 24 hours, because a late report can cost you the claim.
A breakdown is not a Najm matter. Nothing hit you. There is no claim to document. Calling Najm for a car that simply stopped will waste the one resource you actually have, which is time. What you need is recovery, and possibly the traffic police if you are blocking a live lane — Muroor is 993.
Worth having saved regardless: 997 for ambulance, 998 for civil defence, 996 for highway patrol on the intercity roads.
The first thirty seconds
Hazard lights, immediately. Before anything else, before you have worked out what happened. It is the only thing you can do that changes what the traffic behind you sees.
Use the momentum you still have. A car that has lost power keeps rolling for a while. That rolling is worth more than anything else in this article — steer for the hard shoulder, a slip road, a service road, a forecourt. Getting fully off the carriageway while you still have speed is far easier than moving a dead car later.
Wheels pointed away from the traffic if you have stopped on a shoulder, and the handbrake on.
Then decide: out of the car, or in it?
This is the question the international guides answer badly for our climate, so here is the honest version.
On a fast road — a highway, a bridge, anywhere traffic is moving quickly — a car on the shoulder is a target. The standard advice is to get everyone out on the side away from traffic and move well back, behind a barrier if there is one. That advice is right, and it stays right in Jeddah.
On a slow urban street, where you have stopped somewhere visible and traffic is crawling, staying in the car is usually the safer and far more sensible choice — particularly at midday in August, and particularly with children in the car.
What you should not do in either case is stand behind your own vehicle. It is the single most common mistake and it is the one that gets people hurt. If you are out of the car, be well to the side and well back, never in the line a following driver would take.
On the heat: if the engine still runs and only something else has failed, the air conditioning is a genuine safety system here, not a comfort. If the engine is dead, an unshaded car heats up fast — that is a real reason to move people to shade even on a slower road. Judge it on the temperature and the traffic, not on a rule you read somewhere.
What to photograph before anything moves
If another vehicle is involved, photograph everything before the cars are moved: both vehicles, the positions, the plates, the damage, the wider scene showing lanes and signage. If it is purely a breakdown, photograph the dashboard — the warning lights that are lit, and the temperature gauge if you can see it. That picture is worth a surprising amount to whoever diagnoses the car afterwards.
Note what you heard and what you smelled, too. A noise before it stopped, a smell of hot oil or coolant, steam, a warning that came up first — these narrow the diagnosis considerably, and by tomorrow you will have forgotten the detail.
Calling us
If you are within our opening hours — Saturday to Thursday, 9:00 to 14:00 and 16:00 to 21:00 — call or message us and we can arrange recovery to bring the car in. Tell us where you are, what the car did before it stopped, and what is showing on the dash. That last part decides what we prepare for before it arrives.
Outside those hours, or on a Friday, you will need a recovery service directly — and if your car is still under manufacturer warranty, check whether roadside assistance is included, because on most European marques sold here it is. We would rather tell you that than have you pay for a tow you did not need to buy.
Afterwards
A car that stops without warning almost always gave a warning. Not always a light — sometimes a start that took a beat longer for a few weeks, a smell, a hesitation pulling away. Once it is in, the job is finding which of those it was, so it does not happen again on a worse road. What that process looks like is set out in what should happen when you leave your car: diagnosis first, photographed evidence, a written quote, and nothing touched until you say so.