Waiting for assistance When you return to your vehicle the safest place for you and any passengers to wait for help to arrive is behind the crash barrier if there is one, or near your vehicle on the embankment or adjacent land. Move up the bank or verge as far as possible keeping an eye on the oncoming traffic. If it is not possible to wait in this manner or you feel threatened, then return to your vehicle and wait in the front passenger seat with doors locked, keeping a watch on the oncoming traffic. When you feel it is safe to do so, return to the safe place near your vehicle. There is a perception that a 'lone female' is at risk of being attacked on a motorway hard shoulder.
Research shows that the risk of being hit by another vehicle is much greater.
Once your vehicle is repaired, return to the motorway by using the hard shoulder as an acceleration lane, merging with the traffic in lane one when you have reached a similar speed and there is an appropriate gap.