Are you ready for a fantastic summer road trip?! It is a brilliant time to spend time with your loved ones, travel, and enjoy your time. Here are some tips you can use to manage your trips safely.
1. Catch Up on Maintenance:
Taking care of your vehicle and ensuring regular maintenance is one of the most crucial requirements, even during normal days. But when it comes to taking your car on long trips where you will drive it for a longer time, it is important to ensure full maintenance.
Things like proper oil changes, battery and tire pressure checks, and tune-ups are all essential parts of successful maintenance. It would be wisest to take your car to a workshop and let a professional technician take a look at your vehicle to see if anything is needed before you leave for your trip.
2. Avoid Talking to The Passengers
Traveling with your friends and family is fun, yes, but it shouldn’t come at the expense of your or their safety. All of your focus must remain on the road and not in the conversations going on beside you.
3. Forget Your Phone
Other than talking to the passengers, using your phone can also put everyone in the car at risk. Put it on silent mode or vibrate mode, at least, to minimize distractions. You can go through it once you stop at a rest station. You should also avoid eating while driving… that too can be done during your stay at the rest stop.
4. Don’t Drive for A Very Long Time
You should take regular breaks while on driving duty during a road trip. This can save you extra fatigue and decreased visibility which can lead to very unsafe driving. Instead, take regular breaks or let one of the passengers drive for a bit.
5. Check for Fire Bans and Children on The Road
Naturally, there are going to be more kids on the roads than usual with schools being off during summer. So, be careful while driving past children playing on the street, riding their bikes, etc.
Other than that, you should check for fire bans in the area that you are traveling to and should be on the lookout for fire weather and fire behavior reports to ensure maximum safety throughout your trip.
Surely, you are going to be buckled up securely while driving. Same with your pets, you should secure their seatbelts before getting onto the journey. This will prevent them from roaming around the car, distracting you, coming near the driver’s seat, and will also protect them in the unfortunate case of a car crash.
Driving with A Pet
Cats:
If you are traveling with your cat (or cats), you should get a strong carrier that will keep your cat safe and will also keep them from coming near you or your feet which could be a dangerous hindrance when you need to hit the brakes.
Your windows should be closed to prevent the cat from jumping out but when they will be secured in a carrier, the windows should be lowered a bit to allow for ventilation. If not, the air conditioning should be turned on.
Dogs:
A dog seatbelt, dog harness, or crate should be pursued to buckle up your dog while going on trips.
With a dog harness or a seatbelt, you will have to find the right size so it will fit your dog. Make sure that you learn how to use it while buying it. While securing the harness, you should measure a space about the size of two fingers between the dog and the harness so your dog can stay comfortable throughout the trip.
Make sure that the harness you buy allows the dog to move as it pleases – he/she should be able to sit, stand, and move to lay down as they like without having to change the setting.
As for crates, buy one that has been crash-tested and can be easily secured by a seatbelt.
And just as we suggested before for cats, you should keep the windows down to provide ventilation for your dog as well.
And if you are driving a pickup truck, you should avoid letting your dog sit in the back. Keep them inside the vehicle to ensure full safety throughout the journey.
Packing an Emergency Kit
While going on any sort of trip, you should always take an emergency kit with you. It should include:
- A first-aid kit.
- A car charger for your mobile phone.
- Flares.
- Candles/matches.
- A flashlight.
- Non-perishable food such as granola or protein bars and water.
- Blankets and extra clothes.
