MC placed multiple times and given same instance name?

Question

Hi everyone, I am pretty new to code in flash.
I am mostly used to use object oriented programming, but in flash I'm doing everything in one frame.
I am making a car game. Kinda GTA style, but very simple. You are a police car, and you chase a theif through a city.
The theif uses ground nodes to know where he can drive, and where he can turn.
basically, below is the stage. I have placed these objects directly onto the stage, and given some of them instance names.:
|      O
|  O ©
|            _______________________
|            |
|            |
|            |
|            |
|      ^     |
|      |     |
|     X     |
The © is a MC named node_switch.
The O's are the two objects of the same MC, which both are named node_stop
The X is the theif (mc), and he is driving upward along the road.
When theif hits node_switch, he will look up,down, left and right if any node_stop is placed.
This is done with hitTestObject. the theif has invisible "beams" in all 4 directions, inside it's MC.
The problem is as following:
When multiple nodes are placed on the stage, the theif only collides with one of them.
As I said, they have the same instance name.
Is there a way to be able to place them directly on the stage, give them all the same instance name, and make a for loop where it goes through all of them and checks collision?
Edit:
Or is it maybe possible to place them directly on the stage, give them instance names such as "node_switch01", "node_switch02", and then check for them all at the same time in a for loop, or in some other way? there will be lots of nodes, so...

Answer 1

If you name them all differently you will have an easier time of it.  To loop thru them with the naming convention you suggested you can use the bracket notation, though it would be easier to get rid of the leading zeroes...
for (var i:uint=1; i<=numNodes; i++){
     if(thief.hitTestObject(this["node_switch"+String(i)]){
          // don't go this way