{"id":3829,"date":"2017-11-30T09:51:23","date_gmt":"2017-11-30T17:51:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/ehs\/?p=3829"},"modified":"2019-08-15T16:59:18","modified_gmt":"2019-08-15T23:59:18","slug":"driving-in-a-winter-wonderland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/ehs\/driving-in-a-winter-wonderland\/","title":{"rendered":"Driving in a Winter Wonderland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As the temperatures drop and frost covers our windshields, it&#8217;s a good time to think about safe winter driving. According to the Federal Highway Administration, &#8220;Over 1,300 people are killed and more than 116,800 people are injured in vehicle crashes on snowy, slushy or icy pavement annually.&#8221;<!--more--> So take a little time to prepare your vehicle for winter conditions and remember to drive safe.<\/p>\n<p>WA Department of Transportation has a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wsdot.com\/winter\/files\/winterchecklist.pdf?v=2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Winter Driving Checklist<\/span><\/a>\u00a0of items to keep in your car during the winter months. In addition to the items on that list, I like to keep a box of air activated hand warmers (like Hot Hands) in the car when it&#8217;s cold out.<\/p>\n<p>Remember to drive more slowly and carefully when it&#8217;s icy, snowy, or hard to see.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Turn your headlights on every time you drive<\/li>\n<li>Keep your gas tank half full, that way you won&#8217;t have to worry about running the heater if you&#8217;re stuck in the snow<\/li>\n<li>Maintain more distance between your vehicle and the one in front of you, it takes longer to stop on icy roads<\/li>\n<li>Clear the ice and snow off your car before driving; the snow piled on your car is considered an unsecured load and you can be fined for not clearing it off before you hit the road\n<ul>\n<li>If you are driving behind a vehicle with a lot of snow\/ice on the roof, stay as far back as possible; ice coming off the vehicle in front of you can shatter your windshield and could put you in the hospital<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure style=\"width: 558px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" title=\"http:\/\/www.pressherald.com\/2015\/01\/05\/at-least-20-in-maine-report-damage-from-ice-flying-off-other-vehicles\/\" src=\"http:\/\/multifiles.pressherald.com\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/01\/565502_710451-20150105_Ice_01.jpg\" alt=\"A chunk of ice caved in this car windshield\" width=\"568\" height=\"416\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A chunk of ice flew off another car and caved in this car&#8217;s windshield<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As the temperatures drop and frost covers our windshields, it&#8217;s a good time to think about safe winter driving. According to the Federal Highway Administration, &#8220;Over 1,300 people are killed and more than 116,800 people are injured in vehicle crashes on snowy, slushy or icy pavement annually.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8740,"featured_media":3830,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":[],"_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"wpo365_audiences":[],"wpo365_private":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,25,26],"tags":[27],"class_list":["post-3829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cold","category-current-safety-topics","category-health-wellness","tag-fall-winter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/ehs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3829"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/ehs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/ehs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/ehs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8740"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/ehs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3829"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/ehs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9392,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/ehs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3829\/revisions\/9392"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/ehs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/ehs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/ehs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/ehs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}