Before you buckle your seat­belt and drive to meet your fam­i­lies this hol­i­day sea­son you should take a few steps to ensure your fam­i­lies safety. Funds are tight this year and many trav­el­ers have cho­sen to hit the pave­ment instead of fly­ing to greet their loved ones. That means that many peo­ple have left early in hopes of arriv­ing on time with lit­tle traffic.

Some Things To Con­sider Before You Leave:

• Reg­u­lar car main­te­nance: When was the last time you checked the tread on your tires? Air pres­sure? An oil change? Have a solid spare in the trunk? Please make sure your vehi­cle is good to go.
• Plan ahead and have an alter­nate route: These days you can find just about any­thing online. Know where you are going and dif­fer­ent ways to get there.
• Expect bumper-to-bumper traf­fic: AAA esti­mates that 36 mil­lion of us (over 86% of all hol­i­day trav­el­ers) will travel 50 or more miles from home dur­ing Thanks­giv­ing holiday.
• Be well rested and pre­pared for a stress­ful drive: Every­one wants to get out of their cars just as quickly as you do and aggres­sive dri­vers are in abun­dance these days…
• Bring along some sooth­ing music: To take your mind off of the Great Sea of Com­bus­tion you are cur­rently in.
• Make sure all pas­sen­gers AND child safety seats are prop­erty restrained/installed.
• Speed­ing, dis­tracted dri­ving, fatigue, etc. are all con­tribut­ing fac­tors in motor vehi­cle crashes. Remem­ber that we all share the same road.
• Remem­ber that the left lane is only for pass­ing: Many crashes hap­pen because dri­vers are forced to pass on the right because the pass­ing lane is being blocked, illegally.
• If alco­hol is going to be a part of your hol­i­day cel­e­bra­tions, work out who will be dri­ving home sober before the fes­tiv­i­ties begin.

Before You Head Back Home:

• With a Thanks­giv­ing feast comes fatigue: Get plenty of rest the night before if you can, leav­ing a lit­tle ear­lier (AKA “beat the traf­fic”), and trav­el­ing in day­light hours will all help man­age the risk of fatigue. Remem­ber, turkey does have a nat­ural seda­tive in it, known as “Tryp­to­phan”, which will con­tribute to your feast-induced drowsi­ness. Here is an inter­est­ing arti­cle on how car­bo­hy­drates also add to this chem­i­cal reac­tions inside your body.
• If alco­hol was part of your hol­i­day cel­e­bra­tions please do not drive under the influ­ence. One day when we each have our very own road we can do what­ever we like.

REMINDER TO AGGRESSIVE DRIVERS: Many vehi­cles on the road will have entire fam­i­lies in them. So please be extra care­ful and put that road rage aside and be thank­ful that you live to drive another day… and still have a license.

Have a safe trip and Happy Thanksgiving!

We rec­om­mend

• The Preg­nant Woman’s Guide to Buck­ling Up
• Child Safety: 4 Easy Steps to Pro­tect our Children
• Occu­pant Pro­tec­tion Facts
• The top 5 things you should know about buck­ling up
• 10 Dri­ving Dan­gers Posed by Thanks­giv­ing Foot­ball Games
• If you are just try­ing to fig­ure out how to deep-fry a turkey