South Carolina Summer Road Trip Safety
Summer road trips can be a wonderful experience provided that your trip goes well. An accident or a breakdown, however, can cause the trip to be a disaster or to end in tragedy. When you go on a summer road trip, you need to be prepared for possible risks that you face and you need to do everything possible to keep yourself and others safe.
If you or a loved one is hurt in an accident this summer, you should consult with a personal injury attorney for help. Your lawyer can assist in understanding your legal rights.
Avoiding Accidents and Breakdowns
Safer Car provides tips for people going on summer road trips. Based on this advice, there are some things that you can do both before you leave for your trip as well as when you are out that will help to avoid accidents and breakdowns.
Before you leave on your trip, you should:
- Get any maintenance done that your vehicle needs. If you oil needs to be changed or your tires rotated, now is the time to do it. If your car has not been in to the mechanic for a while, then you may wish to consider having a preventative maintenance check to make sure the brakes and other parts are working well.
- Check fluid levels in your vehicle. Do you have enough windshield washer fluid and coolant in the car?
- Be sure your windshield wipers are in working order. Replace them if they are showing excessive wear-and-tear.
- Check your tires. This is one of the most important things you can do because a tire blowout could cause a deadly accident. You want to check both the tire tread and air pressure. Your car may tell you when the air pressure in the tires is too low but summer heat is hard on tires so always be sure to double check.
When you are actually on your road trip, you need to keep yourself, your passengers and pedestrians safe. To help avoid the risk of an accident or serious injuries, you should:
- Be on the lookout for pedestrians, and allow pedestrians to cross at cross-walks. Summer is a prime time for pedestrian accidents because kids are out of school and because the weather is nicer and more people are able to walk. Never assume a pedestrian sees you and always keep a careful eye on the road to watch for people.
- Be sure that you and your passengers are securely buckled into the vehicle when driving. If you are traveling with kids in your car with you, have children under the age of 13 sit in the back seat. For younger children, have a booster or a car seat depending upon their age and size and be sure that it is properly installed.
By following these basic summer road trip safety tips, hopefully accidents, injuries and vehicle breakdowns can all be avoided and you can have a pleasant and safe trip.
South Carolina personal injury attorney Chad McGowan is ready to help accident victims. Contact McGowan, Hood, Felder & Phillips, LLC at 803-327-7800 or visit https://www.mcgowanhood.com for a free case consultation.
McGowan, Hood, Felder & Phillips, LLC has been a part of your community for years. We founded our firm in its current state in 2003, but each of our partners – Chad McGowan, S. Randall Hood, Johnny Felder and Robert Phillips – has more than 20 years of experience to his name. Since then, we have grown in both size and number, with nearly 20 attorneys whose primary goal is offer you and your family exceptional legal guidance and support when most needed.
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