Road trips can be so much fun. There’s something about just hopping in the car with a destination in mind and hitting the open road without a care in the world that is exhilarating. As a child, road trips were often horrendous, as it was impossible to sit still in a car for hours at a time when you didn’t have a smartphone, a tablet, or a way to watch television and movies while out in the middle of nowhere.
You usually hoped you could just fall asleep and when you woke up, the trip would either be over, or you’d only have a couple more hours of boredom to endure.
Nowadays, kids don’t really have the problem of entertaining themselves on the road, as technology has made it possible to endure anything. Road trips can once again be fun, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t precautions and rules you need to abide by for your own safety.
When gearing up for a road trip, here are things you need to do:
Enforce the Seatbelt Rule
Car accidents happen, and you need to protect yourself in every aspect if one happens to you. One practical way to do this is to strictly enforce a seatbelt rule upon everybody who is in your car while it’s moving. If it’s just you, this is easy.
If you have a back seat of children who want to lay down and sleep on car rides, it becomes more challenging to enforce the rule, but in order to keep everybody alive and out of harm’s way, don’t go lax on the seat belt rule. You’ll have yourself many a headache should something go wrong.
Have A Navigator
Thanks to GPS, driving is actually much safer than it used to be. No longer does a person have to whip out a massive map, find where they are, and try to navigate where they’re going, and drive at the same time. If there is more than one person in the car, it’s a great idea to have a navigator. You could do it yourself, but that puts you and your passengers at a greater risk than there needs to be. Make it a rule of thumb that the passenger seat always navigates during a road trip and you’ll be much safer for it.
Rotate Drivers
If you have passengers in the car that are of driving age, it’s always a good idea to rotate drivers. Somebody behind the wheel for too long can start getting tired or start going a bit cross eyed in the sense that they’ve been staring at the road for too long and need a break. If you rotate drivers, have a navigator and always make everybody wear seatbelts, you’ll ensure you’ll arrive safely at your destination.
