Prepare For An Emergency On The Road.
Emergencies on the road are inevitable. If you drive at all, at some point, you will face a roadside emergency. A flat tire, a broken fan belt, a leaking radiator, or a dead battery are just a few of the common occurrences we can expect when we travel. No one can predict when they'll have an emergency on the road. We should always be ready.
Having a minor emergency, such as a flat tire in the middle of the day when you have a cell phone handy and can call a friendly neighborhood mechanic or
AAA (the American Automobile Association) is one thing. That same flat tire in the middle of the night, in a blizzard, with no cell phone service, becomes a major emergency. Well, we should be ready for just that type of emergency. You don't have to be a mechanic to be
ready for a roadside emergency. There are certain things that you can do, and certain items you should always have on hand in your car, to help yourself during a roadside emergency.
Roadside Emergency Kit, The Essentials
One of the main things you can do is Make Sure You Keep Up The maintainance On Your Car. I can't stress keeping your chariot in good working condition, enough. But some emergencies don't care what kind of shape your car is in, and right now we're talking about emergencies, so let's get busy. When putting together a roadside emergency kit, you want to think of two emergency kits, a car kit, and a personal kit.
Your car kit should contain
- Work gloves
- Owners manual
- Jumper Cables
- Multi Purpose Fire Extinguisher
- Flashlight with extra batteries, Take the batteries out of the flashlight and store both in a large freezer bag so that the batteries last longer
- Duct Tape
- Multipurpose tool, such as a Leatherman. It doesn't have to be a Leatherman, just a good Multipurpose tool.
- Paper towels. I keep a roll of heavy-duty, paper shop towels in my trunk. Autozone also sells them.
- Windshield washer fluid. You only need to keep this in the trunk if you are going on an extended road trip.
- Tire pressure gauge
- 3 road flares or reflective warning cones or triangles
- One gallon jug of water only necessary for extended road trips. My wife taught me always to keep a few bottles of water in the car if someone is thirsty.
- 2 quarts of motor oil
- Rags
- Small shovel
- Ice scraper
- Kitty litter or sand to use as traction if you get stuck in the snow. Here is an excellent web page with instructions for getting a car unstuck in snow and ice
- Spare tire (filled), jack and lug wrench
- Portable 12 VDC Air Compressor Having one of these on hand saved my rear end one time after getting a flat tire in the desert. Just getting a flat tire would not have been so bad. But once I had taken all my luggage out of the trunk and gotten the spare out, I discovered it was flat. Thank God I always keep a 12 v air compressor in the trunk. Lesson learned, always check your spare tire before driving into a desert.
- Car Hammer - Auto Safety Seatbelt Cutter Glass Window Punch Breaker Emergency Rescue Disaster Escape Lifehammer Tool.
"Expect the best, plan for the worst, and prepare to be surprised."
Denis Waitley
Your Personal Emergency Road Kit should include:
Pack a personal emergency kit for other family members
If you’re traveling with children, you will want to pack the items they may need if you get temporarily stranded. Remember things like
- Formula
- Baby food
- Snacks, another thing I picked up from wifey; always keep some snacks in the car.
- Water
- Extra clothes
- Diapers
- Blankets
- Warm shoes and boots
- Hats
- Mittens
- Stroller or another carrier
- Games
When preparing your kits, try to imagine if you were stranded and couldn't get home for hours.
Remember the Atlanta snow storm in January 2014? The storm stranded thousands of people on Atlanta's freeways, folks on the way home from work, and other places. How soon we forget. You don't have to be in the middle of nowhere to need a fully stocked roadside emergency kit. Remember you could be without heat, electricity, or other comforts of home. What would you want in your car if that were the case?
Even a minor roadside emergency can be difficult. A short trip across town could leave you stranded if something happened to your car or if there were an earthquake or some other disaster. The lists of items I've given you are extensive; you may not need every single item on them depending on where you live, and what time of year it is. But remember that we are living in strange times, which brings me back to Atlanta and the South Eastern United States, Winter 2014. That winter we saw snow in places that don't usually get snow in the winter time. Prepare the best you can for these situations so you can return home safe and sound. What about you? Are you ready for an emergency on the road? If I forgot anything let me know.
Have an outstanding week. God be with you until we meet again.
Copyright:
ampak / 123RF Stock Photo
Copyright:
eric1513 / 123RF Stock Photo
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