Pushing a Prius (versus towing)

The manual for my 2006 Prius has a lot about what to do and not do if it needs to be towed. But what about it being pushed? I sometimes have to drive across the Causeway Bridge near New Orleans. It is 26 miles long and does not have shoulders to pull off on. If you car runs out of gas or breaks down, you have to wait until one of the Causeway police cars shows up. They have big rubber bumpers and they then "push" you to the next crossover if there is one, or to the end of the bridge if not.

This happened to me last Friday. I made the mistake of believing the last little box on the fuel gauge meant you still had 2 gallons in the tank. Two boxes, or pips as some call them, were showing when I first got on the bridge. The second to last box disappeared about two miles onto the bridge, and then the last box started blinking at about mile 5. Then the out of fuel warnings came on around mile 21, the battery took over but I could not accelerate at all and the speed slowly went down and down and down and the car stopped. Fortunately, a recently retired police officer was right behind me and he slowed down as I did, and then stopped behind me, turned on his bubble lights, called for help, and got out and stood in the lane and waved off traffic. This is a very dangerous bridge due to the lack of a shoulder. In January, a guy and his little boy were in their pick up truck when they were hit from the rear and pushed through the bridge railing and into the lake. Both drowned. Two weeks before I ran out of gas, another guy was killed the same way. And then just four days before I ran out of gas, a Causeway employee was rear ended and pushed thru the railing and into the lake. Fortunately, he lived. Anyhow, the Causeway police will not allow anyone to wait for a tow truck unless a vehicle is destroyed or can't be moved. Instead, they will get behind you and push you.

Anyone know if the hybrid system and computers, or the transmission, can be messed up by a push from the rear? Once I was off the bridge, the police put two gallons in my Prius and it started just fine. No problems since then, but I'm wondering if there may be a latent problem. Can't find anything in the manual about pushing a Prius.

Thanx for any input.

Gary

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(galaxee @ Apr 12 2006, 10:15 PM) [snapback]238914[/snapback]</div>

Thanx, and I definitely learned my lesson. There are a number of posts on this forum that say the tank still has 2 gallons when the last pip shows. I hope others who read that treat it with a lot more skepticism than I did.