You’re prepared for emergencies at home. You have a drawer full of flashlights, candles and extra batteries in case the power goes out. You have smoke alarms and fire extinguishers on every floor in case a fire erupts indoors. You have a first aid kit in your supply closet and emergency contacts saved in your smartphone. Your whole household is prepared to hunker down in place or evacuate at a moment’s notice.
It’s excellent that you’re so prepared at home — but are you prepared on the road? You should invest some time in preparing for roadside emergencies that you might encounter. Read ahead to find out how.
Table of Contents
Put Together an Emergency Car Kit
You should have an emergency kit nestled in the trunk of your car. It could help you recover from some roadside emergencies— or at the very least, wait out the emergencies until a tow truckarrives on the scene.
What should be in your emergency car kit?
• Bottled Water
• Car jack
• Duct tape
• First aid kit
• Flashlight and extra batteries
• Jumper cables
• Lug wrench
• Non-perishable food
• Phone charger
• Rain poncho
• Small shovel
• Tire sealant
• Tire gauge
• Tow rope
• Warm blanket
• Warning triangles
Get Roadside Assistance
Does your car insurance policy cover roadside assistance? You should consider adding it to your policy so that you’ll have access to this coverage when you deal with flat tires, a dead car battery or an empty fuel tank.
Put Together an Emergency Fund
After a roadside emergency, you might have to pay for tow truckservices, car repairs, replacement tires or other similar expenses. If you don’t have insurance coverage, you’ll have to handle these expenses out of pocket. Even if you do have insurance, you might not get full coverage for these related expenses. An emergency fund should assist you with the remaining costs.
Without an emergency fund, you might not have enough funds readily available to cover an urgent expense without disrupting your monthly budget. You might have to find an alternative payment method to resolve an emergency expense in a short amount of time.
You could use a credit card, as long as you have enough available credit, and you can manage your upcoming bills. You could also go to a website like CreditFresh to see whether you meet the qualifications for a fast online loan in your state of residence. With all of the qualifications checked off, you can fill out an online application. It may only take a few minutes to do.
If you get approved for a fast online loan, you could use borrowed funds to manage your emergency expense. After resolving the expense, you can direct your focus to the online loan’s repayment plan. You can complete it through a straightforward billing cycle.
Learn Defensive Driving
Some traffic schools will offer defensive driving training to teach drivers how to handle emergency situations, like skidding on the road or malfunctioning brakes. Taking a defensive driving course and completing it could reduce your car insurance rates. However, you should bring this up with your insurer before you assume it will impact your payments.
Prepare for All Types of Weather
The weather will have a major impact on your driving. Rainy weather will make the roads slick and make it harder to brake in time. Foggy weather will give you low visibility through your windshield and make it a challenge to see the road right ahead. A severe storm could blow objects like garbage cans and broken tree branches directly in front of you.
So, you should learn what to do in inclement weather conditions when you’re on the road. Then, you’ll know exactly how to stay safe when the weather isn’t clear.
You can’t be sure when you’ll have a roadside emergency. Follow these tips so that you’ll be ready for it.
