Yes my fellow drivers, winter is upon us once again. And like every year, it’s going to take a week or two before we all recover our winter driving skills. The MN State Patrol reported nearly 150 crashes on the first day of snow a couple of weeks ago, just to demonstrate the point. The impending freezing precipitation brings back thoughts of Snow Emergencies in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, so it behooves everyone to be aware of when the emergencies are declared and the parking rules in your city. For Minneapolis, you can find everything you need to know on the City of Minneapolis Snow Emergency page. There is, of course, also a St. Paul Snow Emergency page.
It also makes good sense to make sure your car is prepared for winter. The natural first steps are to make sure you have snow tires, your windshield wipers are in good condition and you’ve got a full washer fluid tank, and that your antifreeze is fresh and at a proper level. But you should also make sure you have some emergency supplies in your car. The standard advice is to keep jumper cables, a flashlight, and a first aid kit. Of these, I consider only the flashlight to be vital. You’ll be grateful for having some light if you break down on a side street where the light is poor, especially if you need to peek under the hood or into the trunk. And a flashlight help passing motorists to see you in the dark. So keep a flashlight with fresh batteries in your glovebox where it’s easy to find at a moment’s notice.
As for the other commonly suggested items, I’m less enthusiastic about their utility in an emergency in the car. At the top of my list of non-essentials is a set of jumper cables. The chances of your battery going dead when you’re in a remote area where you can’t walk or call for help seems pretty minimal to me unless there was a “pre-existing condition”. Living in Minnesota means it is smart to own a set of jumper cables, but with the proliferation of cell phones it’s unlikely that you’d find yourself in a situation anywhere in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area where jumper cables are your last, best hope of getting home. If you’re dead on the street near your house and you don’t have a second car to use, you can probably find a willing neighbor. But if you’re stuck someplace cold, dark, and remote, you’ll be hard pressed to find anyone willing to give you a jump anyway. Call the guy and be home in a stress-free hour. And if you often travel out in the wilds of the greater Twin Cities, an AAA membership would be $80.00/year well spent.
And while a first aid kit has the cachet of prudence, most of the kits made for cars include little more than band-aids, a roll of gauze, and some flimsy adhesive tape. If you have kids, you’ll certainly want to have a first aid kit in the car all year long because, well, they’re kids and you just never know when they’ll get hurt. But as an asset in a winter driving emergency, your cell phone is much more valuable.
Despite my reservations about the items above, there are two things I think you should have in your car’s emergency kit. The first is a roll of duct tape. Everybody knows that duct tape is great for making temporary repairs when you don’t have tools handy. But duct tape can also be handy in a medical emergency for immobilizing limbs or affixing a makeshift bandage. And for those who do travel in remote areas where it can take a long time for help to arrive, a large fleece blanket can help you keep warm if your car won’t start and you have to wait for help to arrive. Fleece blankets fold nice and compact so they don’t take much room in the trunk. And with all of the highway driving we do these days, a half dozen road flares will let you warn oncoming traffic when you’re broken down. And there’s nothing better than a 10lb. bag of kitty litter to give your tires some traction when you’re stuck in icy ruts or sloppy snow.
But the most important thing to remember when you’re driving in winter is to slow down! You know you can’t stop as well in winter, and even if you’re careful there are enough crazies out there who just can’t help themselves. As Jack Parr used to say (yes, I’m that old!), the life you save could be mine!
