Thanksgiving Safety Tips
Many people travel by car for Thanksgiving.
Keep in mind the following safety tips over the holiday:
- Check your emergency kit: Contents should include: battery powered radio, flashlight, blanket, jumper cables, fire extinguisher, first aid kit, bottled water, non-perishable foods, maps, tire repair kit and flares.
- Be aware of changes in weather. Remember weather can change dramatically from when you start your trip to when you end.
- Long weekends have 18 per cent more deadly accidents than non-holiday weekends.
- Extra police force will be on the roadways this weekend to monitor aggressive, speeding, distracted and impaired drivers.
- Failing to use your seatbelt may be a bigger cause of fatal accidents during long weekends than either driver intoxication or speeding
- Children under 12 should always ride in the back seat.
In addition to road safety, please consider the following:
- Cooking mishaps account for 30 per cent of residential fires in Canada, according to data from the National Fire Information Database.
- Don’t leave your stove or oven unattended and make sure you have working smoke alarms and a fire extinguisher.
- If you have a grease fire in one of your pots, turn off the source of the heat and focus on cutting the oxygen supply. You can do so by covering up your pot with a tight-fitting lid, if you have one, or another pot.
- NEVER use water to try to put it out a grease fire! This can cause the grease to sputter and for the fire to spread.
Keep safe everyone, and enjoy this celebratory time of year.
