Family Safety On The Road

This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through links on our site, we may earn a commission. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Once summer vacation begins, so does travel season for many families. Since the kids are out of school, summer is the peak time for family travel to visit theme parks, go on camping adventures and even plan a trip to Grandma’s house.

With all of the extra people on the road during this time, we must practice some safety tips for traveling with our young ones.

Please find 10 tips that think are essential to keeping your family safe while on the road.

1. Maintain your vehicle by ensuring that you have checked tires, changed oil and have gotten your inspections on time. Regular vehicle maintenance is key for not experiencing surprises while you are on the road.
2. Keep your spare tire in good condition and also make sure that you have a jack handy in the case that your tire should blow while you are on the highway.
3. Keep a list of emergency numbers handy. In this list, you should have your insurance card and agent’s phone number, as well as the highway emergency number to call from your cellular phone. This can vary by state, so make sure you know yours.
4. Have a first aid kit located in your car. You never know when someone is going to fall out of the car and get a boo-boo on the pavement.
5. Always carry a blanket. I learned this tip from my mother for just in case I was ever stranded somewhere that it was cold and my car would not run.
6. Enforce good behavior in your vehicle. Children should remain seated (in their car seats for small children) and remain buckled in for the entire trip. When kid’s act up in the car, it can definitely wear on the driver’s patience and affect their driving skills. You know your own kids the best. Pack plenty of items to distract them during the drive.
7. Carry a vehicle safety kit in your vehicle at all times. Mine has road flares, jumper cables and other items that I might need in, just in case.
8. Make sure to pack your wireless Bluetooth device, or hand your cell phone to your spouse if the phone rings so that you can concentrate on the road and not your conversation.
9. Never text and drive! It is against the law now in many states.
10. Always wear your seatbelt. Not only is it the law, but it saves lives.

Do you know what to do if you get a chip in your windshield while you are traveling? This happened to us several years ago. When driving on the highway a rock was kicked up and hit my windshield. That small chip led to a nasty crack later that finally led to me having to replace my entire windshield.

Here is some information from Safelite about window chips:

• “Think you can ignore a chip in your windshield? Think again! The windshield provides up to 30% of your vehicles structural integrity, and a chip smaller than 6 inches (or the size of a dollar bill) can easily be repaired by filling it with a special resin.”
• “Scheduling a windshield chip repair is easy! Companies like Safelite AutoGlass provide mobile service – wherever your car is – often within 24 hours of your initial call.”
• “The repair often takes just 30 minutes, and the result is barely visible and the windshield is strong again.”

Please be sure to get your windshield repaired. Having to replace a full windshield is an unnecessary expense that you probably didn’t budget for in your trip. I hope that if you are going somewhere on summer vacation that your family has a safe and happy trip!