If you're involved in an accident on a motorway, do you have to signal the fact that your car is immobilized by turning on the emergency lights?

In the photo, you can see a two-lane roadway of a high-speed road with noise barriers; a white car with its bonnet raised is standing in the right lane, and a warning triangle has been placed on the roadway behind it. On a motorway, you must signal every case of a vehicle being stationary because of an accident or a breakdown, and the first part of this signalling is switching on the hazard warning lights. The answer is: yes.

The Road Traffic Act requires you to signal a vehicle that is stationary because of a breakdown or an accident on a motorway or an expressway in every case: by switching on the hazard warning lights, or, if the vehicle does not have them, the sidelights (position lights), and by placing a reflective warning triangle 100 m behind the vehicle. The obligation applies for the whole time the vehicle is stationary. You switch on the hazard warning lights immediately after stopping, even before you get out for the triangle, because they are the quickest way to warn drivers approaching from behind.

Legal basis: Art. 50 para. 1 point 1, para. 2 point 1 and para. 3 of the Road Traffic Act (Prawo o ruchu drogowym)