Whether you’re on the road in the winter or traversing a desert on your way to a scenic vacation spot, it’s important to keep emergency essentials in your car. Of course, the environment might dictate to some degree what you should have, b
Whether you’re on the road in the winter or traversing a desert on your way to a scenic vacation spot, it’s important to keep emergency essentials in your car.
Of course, the environment might dictate to some degree what you should have, but for basic survival, basic emergency essentials will be the same.
In this article, we’ll be listing emergency kit essentials not just for your car, but for you as well. ‘Cause yes, traveling may be fun, but we can’t know for sure what lies ahead, so it’s always better to be prepared.
Ready? Let’s get into it!
5 Emergency Kit Essentials You Should Always Have in Your Car
Here are the five emergency kit essentials for your car that you should always have:
1. Emergency Drinking Water
You may not feel like you could survive days without a meal, but you could. Water, on the other hand, you must have. Without it, you would quickly dehydrate which would lead to organ failure and death. Water is generally in plentiful supply, but in emergency situations it is quickly used up. Not only is it important to maintain life, but water is also used to clean, wash out wounds, and for sanitation. It is also useful should your car overheat. It’s easiest to store in a car in smaller packages. They can be purchased in drink box sizes, or in pouches.
2. Food to Keep Your Energy Up
Water may be more important, but it is still necessary to keep your energy up. If your car breaks down far from town, you will want to have food in your emergency kit as well.
Food is very difficult to store since both cold and hot temperature affect it. The most convenient source to store is high calorie food bars. They can withstand extreme temperatures and can keep you feeling full. Just don’t over eat them, however, as they are very high in calories.
3. Blankets to Keep Warm
In wintertime emergencies, a source of warmth will be imperative. A few options include warming packs, emergency blankets and bags, and wool blankets.
Wool is heat efficient in that it can provide warmth even if it is wet. If possible, get a wool blend to increase softness and durability.
Emergency blankets are made of a reflective material that reflects your natural body warmth. In one test participants had to get out of an emergency bag because it was so warm.
4. Flashlights for Night Emergencies
Flashlights are important in any emergency car kit. When it is dark they can provide you with the light necessary to prepare and find other emergency items. Remember to keep fresh batteries packed with them as well. Regardless of your safety kit, it’s essential to remain on high alert when driving at night.
You risk your personal health and your insurance rate skyrocketing because of a little fender bender. It’s important to be aware of your car insurance rate in comparison with your region’s average.
5. First Aid Kit is Your Savior
If you’re injured during an emergency and you can’t get medical help, first aid items can save or prolong your life until help can arrive. Keep in it pain relievers, alcohol prep pads, sterile pads, bandages, gauze, soap, and micro-pore tape. Along with those items add toilet paper, safety pins, and tissues.
Of course, many other items would come in handy in an emergency, but these 5 items could result in coming through an emergency able to tell the story later.
5 Emergency Kit Essentials For Your Car
Okay, so you’re driving and you’ve packed all the essentials that you need in case of emergencies. You’re secured. But what about your means of transportation?
Wherever you are headed, may it be a long drive or a quick stop at a grocery store, you always need to be prepared in case your car breaks down.
So here’s our list of things that you need to have in case of car emergencies:
- Car Documents
You might be thinking there are more important things that you’ll need. So why am I listing car documents in the first place?
Well, perhaps it’s better to break down what each of these car documents can help you with in case of emergencies:
- The car’s manual – Just the car manual alone can save you time in finding out what’s wrong in case it goes haywire. Everything you’ll need to know about your car will be listed there, so you can at least have an idea where to start in case you need help.
- Car maintenance receipts – In case you’ll need car repair while in an unknown territory, having these receipts can help you remember the last time you went for a car check-up and what’s been done. It’s not much, but this can help figure out what’s wrong with your car.
- Registration – any document that can help you prove your ownership should always be with you at all times – just in the unlikely case you get into trouble while driving your car.
- Insurance – again, you’ll never know what can happen so it’s best to always bring documents relating to your car insurance in case you need them, especially if you have just applied recently.
- Emergency contact information – we don’t want to think that you’ll reach the point when you won’t be able to hand in your emergency contact information yourself, but in case you’re driving alone and you are in a car accident, it will help emergency respondents to figure out who to contact (your phone might be broken but these documents will be intact).
- Jumper Cables
I’m not sure if this is just me, but I think jumper cables should always be part of your car emergency kits. I’ve never experienced getting a flat tire while traveling in a friend’s car, but there must have been at least five times when I rode with a friend and the car’s battery died out.
Begging car owners to stop by and help you jumpstart your engine is already shameful enough, doing it several times to find someone who has a jumper cable is just too much! So yes, keep one in your car at all times,
- Spare Tire
Okay, flat tire. I don’t think that this is something that I still need to explain, right? No one wants to get stuck on the road just because they have forgotten to bring a spare tire.
But hey, don’t just bring a spare tire – remember to bring a tire jack and lug wrench as well. Even if you’re too fragile to change tires yourself, it’ll be a lot easier to ask for help from someone to change it for you (if you have all three) than to wait for a towing truck to move your car to the nearest car shop.
- Duct Tape
Seriously, duct tape? It’s not like you’re trying to kidnap someone here, but duct tapes, the durable ones, really come in handy for emergency fixes such as unexpected leaks. In the unlikely case that something breaks (windows, headlights, windshield) in a minor accident, having duct tape to your rescue is also not a bad idea. You’ll know that if you ever had this kind of experience in the past!
- Tactical Flashlight and Reflective Triangles
Fine, this can be a bit getting overboard, but again, it’s always better to be prepared.
Tactical flashlights and reflective triangles can be your savior in case something undesirable happens at night, such as having a flat tire in an isolated road somewhere or if you need to stop in the middle of a highway to check on your car.
Conclusion
So there you have it – the emergency essential kit for you and your car!
Of course, many other items would come in handy in an emergency, but getting the items on our list can already ensure you’re safe if anything happens to you on your road trip.