5 Family Road Trip Emergencies Every Parent Should Prepare For, When it comes to family road trips, there’s always excitement, but a sense of anticipation of the unpredictable reality that comes with travelling with children.
You want to make sure that you’ve packed all of the right gear needed to turn a potential disaster into a minor hiccup. By being prepared, you ensure peace of mind and reduce the risk of problems evolving. Keeping your loved ones safe on the highway is something to prioritise, so here are five family road trip emergencies to be prepared for.
1. Unexpected Vehicle Breakdowns
Getting stranded on busy highway shoulders isn’t uncommon and often happens unexpectedly. Combining that with restless kids makes for a stressful situation.
An emergency roadside kit is worth having in your vehicle to try to repair any problems yourself. Essentials like jumper cables, a reflective triangle, spare fluids, and a flashlight are all handy to have available.
Having a tow truck service to call is crucial when you’ve broken down and can’t deal with the problem yourself. It’s good to have a safety plan when it comes to exit strategies to keep everyone in the car safe from harm. Move away from the active traffic lane and gather everyone behind the barrier.
2. Sudden Illness or Motion Sickness
It can be stressful and worrying for anyone in the vehicle to suddenly get sick or have an illness that comes out of nowhere. When you’re miles away from the nearest pharmacy, what do you do?
You should look at stocking motion sickness bands, easy-to-reach bags for motion sickness, anti-nausea medications, and sealable bins. This can help tackle any in-the-moment illnesses. It’s worth packing a first aid kit for the car that’s filled with pain relievers, blister bandages and antiseptic wipes.
Hydration is important too. It’s a good idea to carry extra drinking water, as well as oral rehydration solutions that help to manage sudden stomach bugs that may make the individual feel worse if they don’t rehydrate their body soon enough.
3. Extreme Weather and Natural Hazards
Driving straight into a flash flood or experiencing a severe thunderstorm on the road can be terrifying. Being prepared to divert your journey helps to manage these unexpected changes in weather and hazards more quickly.
Real-time traffic apps like Waze or Google Maps help to spot severe weather changes ahead. Having essentials for the weather is also good, should you need to keep yourself and your loved ones comfortable during such weather conditions.
Pack extra blankets, high-visibility vests, raincoats, and snacks so that you avoid getting stuck in long traffic halts.
4. Family Separation in Crowded Places
Losing sight of your child at a busy service station, tourist attraction, or rest stop is terrifying, and no parent wants to find themselves in such a situation.
However, at the risk of it happening, it’s good to be prepared and to know what to do. It’s a good idea to print off a travel emergency card to keep on your child should they get lost.
At the start of every day or when arriving at a new location, you should set a meeting spot. That way, if they wander off, it ensures they know where to go and what to say to a work employee or police officer should they come across someone like this.
Location-sharing tags like Apple AirTags are worth adding to your child’s shoe or jacket.
5. Lost or Stolen Essential Documents
Misplacing passports or identification can be a problem. You should look at safely scanning or photographing critical IDs and storing these in an encrypted cloud service. It’s worth having a physical organiser to keep them in good condition, as well as the original documents.
Make sure to prepare for any eventualities that come from road trip emergencies whilst on the road, even if it’s a short trip.
