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So I totally understand about the liability thing. The thing is, when we find a vehicle with a problem, generally things have already gone south. I find a spinout where all the bumpers are destroyed, so I have to rip off the plastic so they can drive home, for example. Our liability is limited by good faith efforts, as well as whatever policy the state dept of transportation carries. I don’t know. I’m just told to do my job and not worry about it, so I assume it’s covered.
My problem is that there’s a series of types of problems that I don’t know how to fix. I can diagnose and smell out what the problem is related to, but little quick fixes to reset things are what I don’t know. For example, the other day I had a vehicle exhibiting no vacuum system pressure, and when starting it up, it would immediately act like it was being floored on the accelerator. I’m guessing something with the cruise control system borked, and a good friend of mine suggested there would be some small things I could have done to verify if it was something that could be rapidly resolved on the roadside. But I don’t know those.
Highway patrols like these are designed to provide incident response through directed service. Yes, we help out disabled motorists, but the point is really to get a disabled vehicle off the road so it’s not a distraction, causing secondary accidents, etc.
On the battery thing, being up in New England, we see that people don’t manage their batteries properly. Vehicles that are driven short, frequent trips, never get the alternator running long enough, and therefore the battery discharges all the time for them. I recommend for these people to maybe install a battery maintainer, either solar or in their garage. Cold temperatures expose dying batteries and their inability to work correctly. But it’s never just a dead battery. It’s usually something else that cause it, like a borked alternator.
I don’t think I’ve seen a battery just fail as you describe, unless it’s been in a car accident or something. Usually they survive quite well.