With winter in full swing for a lot of the globe, it’s wise to know what to do to best keep yourself and others safe when you’re driving during cold temperatures and snowy weather. By knowing some of the best tips for safe driving and teaching them to your family, you can ensure that not only yourself but your elderly loved ones in their senior living communities are able to stay safe as well. 

To help you with this, here are three tips for driving in frigid temperatures. 

Keep Enough Gas In Your Fuel Tank

While no one ever wants to run out of gas, when the temperature drops, you’re going to want to be sure that you have even more gas in your tank that you normally do before heading over to the gas station to fill up. 

Ideally, you should keep at least a half a tank of gas in your fuel tank at all times during the winter, but especially when temperatures drop lower. This is because it can take more energy  to do things like start your car and keep everything running smoothly, which means using more gas to get things going. But if you don’t have enough gas in your tank, even before it starts to show empty, you may not have the fuel and energy you need to get your vehicle started. 

Have Jumper Cables With You

Cold temperatures can not only affect how much gas your car needs to start, but how much energy it takes from your battery to get your car started. And in cold temperatures, your battery can lose a lot of its energy while your car is needing more energy to get going.

Knowing this, you should have your battery checked periodically throughout the winter and during colder temperatures so that you don’t get stuck in a bad situation without being able to turn your car on. Additionally, you should also have jumper cables in your car so that you can get a jump for your battery from another driver if need be. 

Test Your Traction

When the weather starts getting colder, driving conditions can be severely impacted. So if you’re going to be driving and are worried about how the roads are in your area, it’s wise to test your traction before you get going too far down the road.

To do this, find a safe place where you can pick up a little bit of speed and then hit your brakes a bit. If you see that your ABS is kicking in or you feel that you’re slipping and sliding a bit, it’s best to take it really easy on the roads. 

If you want to give yourself the best chances of staying safe in your vehicle while experiencing frigid temperatures, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you in doing this.