Top Towing Tips

Two tips to keep in mind if your car breaks down when you are travelling with your children

20 November 2018 by Constance Sanders

If your vehicle breaks down whilst you are travelling with your children, you should keep the following two tips in mind.

Keep your children occupied by playing a game with them until the tow truck shows up

If you are located in a hard-to-reach area or if the towing service you have called is very busy, it may take an hour or two for the tow truck to rescue you.

As children have short attention spans and tend to become bored very quickly, this wait could leave them feeling agitated and restless.

If instead of making an effort to keep them entertained in this situation, you spend your time browsing the web on your phone, your children may try to entertain themselves by chasing one another or playing a game, like hide and seek.

This could be very dangerous if you have broken down beside a busy road, as there is a chance that one of your children could be struck by a car when running around or trying to find a place to hide.

As such, you should make a concerted effort to keep them occupied during the waiting period. Playing a game of 'I spy' or '20 questions', both of which require concentration, will help to hold their attention and ensure that they don't resort to dangerous activities that could lead to them being injured.

If it is extremely cold and you are concerned about your children developing hypothermia, you might want to incorporate exercises that can be performed 'on the spot' into the aforementioned games, in order to keep them warm.

For example, you could say that if they guess the wrong answer when playing 'I spy', they have to do three jumping jacks. This should improve their blood flow and thus keep them warm until help arrives.

Don't let them go back to the car to retrieve their belongings

As soon as your car stops functioning, you and your children should get out of it and head to the nearest safe spot. You should remain in this area until the tow truck shows up.

After you reach this safe area, your children may ask you if they can go back to the vehicle to retrieve their belongings (like a game console or a book, for example).

However, it is important not to let them do this, even if you think the item in question will keep them occupied until the tow service reaches you.

The reason for this is as follows; when a car is broken down by the side of a road, there is a significant chance that it will be struck by another road user, particularly if the road is busy and the break down occurs late at night, when it is harder for other drivers to see clearly.

If your child happens to be inside the car when this happens, they could be seriously injured.

Uses these tips to keep your children safe, and always have the contact information for a towing company just in case. 

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