what not to do if your car breaks down

raise your hand if you've seen this before:

yeah, thought so.

anyway, i can't help but laugh when i see something hanging out of the window of a disabled car.  it's usually a small towel, or sometimes it's a plastic supermarket bag.  i think - stress think - the idea of the dangling item is to alert passing vehicles that there is a car attached to the item.  i guess the driver of said non-moving car/truck/other fears that other drivers might not notice the disabled vehicle, and then the non-noticing driver might...what?  crash into it?  i imagine it would go like this...

teddy is cruising along in his honda accord,  rolling down 295 south near carney's point on the way to cracker barrel.  suddenly, something catches his eye.  off to the right, a small white object seems to be floating.  teddy peers, trying to keep one eye on the road, one on the steering wheel, and the other is allowed to glance at the moving object.  "what the...is that...huh?  i think something is moving over..."  teddy speeds closer.  without time to think, teddy reaches for the brake pedal and screams, "holy, snot!  there's two-tons of sophistocated machinery attached to that very small plastic bag or towel!"  yeah, like we're not going to notice the car without the bag.

if anyone actually does find themselves in this situation, please don't do the towel.  if it rains, the towel gets wet, and then the water flows through the towel and into the car.  you'll easily get a small puddle on the floor of the car.  the floor mats will get soaked, and maybe the floorboards will rust and rot out.  at least you'll get to play the flintstones and put your feet down and run in order to start the car.