Thanksgiving Weekend travel Tips
Thanksgiving is a time to get together and celebrate with family. Many families are spread out across the provinces, so thanksgiving is also a time where many families travel to reunite with each other. Knowing and following proper safety tips for road travel is important for any time, but especially on holidays and long weekends where you may not have the help or maintenance you may need. Follow these 5 safety travel tips to help make your holiday voyage safe and stress-free.
- Don’t Drive Drowsy
Holidays are a tiring time, so you need to make sure you are wide awake before hitting the road. If fatigued, take action. Letting another driver take a turn, taking regular stops and getting caffeine into you have been proven useful to many. Having something to munch on or playing games can help keep your mind alert and awake. If possible, make sure one person is always awake with you to help with directions, scanning, and to watch and see if you are dozing off.
- Bulb and Tire Check
Before your trip, take a walk around your car and check the headlights, brake lights, and signal lights. Check a week or two before your trip so that you will have time to replace the lights before you hit the road. Having a bulb out is extremely dangerous for you, and those around you. Your cars lights help to signal others of your intentions and provide adequate vision into the dark night. Similarly for the tires, check the pressure and tread wear well in advance of the trip to give yourself enough time to get them replaced if need be.
- Clean the Car
Cleaning your car not only makes for a more pleasant trip but is safer. Driving with dirty windows is a safety hazard. When driving in Canada, especially long trips, it gets messy. There’s mud, and slush, and salt that splashes up and dirties your car and windows. Getting your car as clean as possible before the trip will help with future visibility. To properly wash your windows to avoid streaks and glare that make it hard to see in the sun, clean with a window cleaner and microfiber cloth in circular motions.
- Watch for Wildlife
This time of year is mating season for deer and moose, who follow scents, and are more likely to cross loud and busy areas such as residential streets and highways. Dusk and dawn is the prime time for active animals, but nighttime makes the animals very hard to see, even when they are directly on the side of the road. Have a helper watch on the sides of roads for deer, moose, and bears. Keep your high beams on to get a wider visibility of the shoulders, and beware that if you see one, there are probably more scattered, so take it slow!
- Packing Safely
When packing the car, make sure everything is secured in the back. If you get in an accident, or suddenly hit the brakes, loose bags can fly up and injure somebody. One way to do this is pile the bags behind the back seat as a wall to stop any flying luggage.
CLG Injury Law has over 35 years’ experience representing Atlantic Canadians who have suffered injuries following a motor vehicle accident. For more articles and safety tips, go to https://cantiniinjurylaw.ca/blog/ or subscribe to our newsletter.
