Unfiltered Story #18586

It’s 3AM and I was travelling home from my girlfriend’s house, after having spent the last few hours there. My route takes me down a main arterial road, and then on to a freeway for about 10 minutes before I arrive in my town.

As I was driving, I noticed a van parked up just shy of the traffic lights on the freeway off-ramp, and a man walking around his van on the phone. He had his bonnet up, and the hazard warning lights on as well. I thought to myself “What a hell of a place to break down”.

I joined the freeway, and took the next exit to turn around and go back to the broken down van. I pulled up next to him and asked “Are you alright ?” He responds “Do you have a jumper cable?”
I always carry jumper leads in my car in case of an emergency, so I pulled up in front of his van and connected the leads, and revved up the engine on my car. The van wouldn’t start though. It just sounded like it was turning over with no power. I revved the engine in my car up harder, to 5000 rpm in the hope that there would be enough power generated to start the big old van, but it still refused to start.

After verifying if he had road-assist (which he did not), I suggested that we at least push the van off the freeway ramp, and get it to the on-ramp about 40 meters away, where there is a downhill grade, and we could try bump starting the van.

The two of us pushed the van over the junction and got some momentum going. I shouted to him “Put it in 2nd gear and dump the clutch!” The van finally roared into life! I told him to drive for a long while, to allow the battery to re-charge itself.

I hope that whenever I need help, and I am stranded on the side of the road, someone will pull over to help me, should I ever need it.