Everyone should be cautious about traveling in extreme winter weather. Cold, snow and ice are demanding on cars, drivers and passengers. Cold affects car performance-metal, rubber and other materials. It can reduce the effectiveness of your vehicle’s battery by at least 50 percent.It can freeze tires and keep them flat on the bottom for at least the first half-mile of travel. It can thicken your car’s oils and lubricants, making the engine work too hard.
Most importantly, extreme winter weather can threaten your life-especially when your car suffers an unexpected roadside breakdown, or you are trapped in your car due to severe winter storms. Watch the video on winter car kit preparedness, and follow these safety tips to stay safe in a roadside breakdown or winter storm:
1. Stay in your vehicle. It's vitally important that you stay in your vehicle, warm and dry, protected from the weather. Trying to dig your way out of a ditch, or attempting to walk back to town can be dangerous-even fatal. Use your cell phone and call your family friends, or call 911 to let them know your location and troubles- then sit tight. 2. Do not leave the engine running. If it's extremely cold you can idle the engine for a few minutes at a time. IMPORTANT: Make sure-BEFORE you idle the engine-that the exhaust system is not damaged, and the tail pipe is clear of snow and debris. Why? Carbon monoxide can enter your car’s interior, and sneak up on you without warning. One minute you're feeling normal and the next you're unconscious. Almost 60% of the unintentional deaths caused by carbon monoxide are from motor vehicle exhaust. So don't use the engine for heat -- use your head - and your winter survival kit (tip #4 ). Avoid carbon monoxide poisoning:
3. Ventilate the car. If it will be awhile before help to arrive, avoid the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning by opening a downwind window (on the side away from the wind and blowing snow). Lower it about half of an inch. If you stocked a candle lantern in your emergency road kit, the candles burn for 8 hours, and will raise the temperature in the car 8 to 10 degrees.
4. Pack an emergency road kit. Preparedness can save your life. Putting together a road emergency kit takes time, effort and expense-but your life is worth it, right?!? In an earlier blog, we highlighted the 25 items you should keep in an emergency travel kit. Again, for the winter months, and unexpected winter roadside breakdowns, make sure you have in your car these items:
· Warm clothes(socks, hat, gloves, long underwear and fleece or wool layers)
· Sleeping bag or blankets.
· Goggles (to see in snow or ice storms)
· Boots (snow boots particularly)
· Flares, flashlight, battery powered radio,
· Rope, nylon cords, or similar lines. ( use the rope to tie off a life line to your car so that you can find the way back to your car-visibility can be as low as 12 inches in a storm)
· Food snacks and roasted nuts, dried fruit, chocolate, energy bars, etc. sure taste good in a situation like this -and will provide the protein and fat you'll need to keep warm.
· “Backpack Meals”- buy the kind that you cook in its own package - all you do is add hot water
· Water (you should keep 2 large bottles in your kit). Drink the water sparingly (not just to conserve, but also to reduce those inevitable “go to the bathroom” moments). But don't let yourself get dehydrated.
· First Aid kit
· Tools: screwdriver, needle nose pliers, channel lock plier, crescent wrench)
· Camp Heat, Sterno or emergency stove (to melt snow and heat water)
· Coffee can, pot, or bread pan (to melt snow in)
In the rare event that you're trapped for more than 24 hours, things get a little trickier, but you'll do just fine-with your remaining emergency kit contents. When you run out of water and dry food, you'll have to do some cooking- outside if possible. If the snow and wind have stopped blowing hard, gear up and head outside. Dig out a shelf in the snow, line it with your floor mats and set up the stove.
If the storm is still blowing, clear out an area in the car, protect it with the floor mats, and set up a makeshift kitchen. Fill the coffee can, pot or pan with snow and fire up the stove – carefully. Pour the first pot of melted snow in your bottle. If you're hungry, you'll have to melt more snow and heat the water to near boiling. Open one of your backpack meals and enjoy the nourishment.
Help should be just around the corner-severe storms don't usually last much longer than a day–and you can survive 4 or 5 more if you're prepared.
Get your car or truck ready for the winter-have your charging system checked-for FREE- at one of our 5 locations. Whether you are in Midvale, West Jordan, Riverton, South Jordan, Sandy, Draper, West Valley City, Murray, or Salt Lake City, we have a location close to you.The whole "starting your car in cold weather" thing can be a big problem for Salt Lake City and Utah drivers. We check your car charging system: car battery, starter, alternator and regulator, for FREE at any of our 5 locations.
