5275A Avoiding Driving Disasters
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link to General Motors: Avoid VAcation Disasters
link to Chevrolet: Traverse Avoid VAcation Disasters
Buick Lucerne: Avoid VAcation Disasters
Cadillac Escalade: Avoid VAcation Disasters

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Avoid Vacation Disasters
With These Six Road Trip Recommendations

edited by Madelyn MIller, the TravelLady

Despite expensive fuel and economic uncertainty, millions of Americans will be hitting the road.Here are some recommendations intended to keep a vacation trip a vacation and not a family disaster story.

1) Take An Extra Key

Not many experiences are more frustrating than to be 300 hundred miles from home and to lock yourself out of your car. New automobiles can be a real challenge to enter, even by pros, when they are locked. Placing or hiding a key somewhere on the exterior of the vehicle will turn a potential nightmare into a minor inconvenience.
OnStar is one option available on some vehicles, particularly GM that can serve as a piece of mind if you should happen to lock your keys in the car. They are able to unlock your car with just a phone call.

2) Your GPS Isn’t Infallible -- Buy And Carry A Good Road Map

That new GPS may be addictive, but they are not foolproof in every situation. For example, a bad accident stalls traffic for hours on a major highway and has you stranded in unfamiliar country. A good map may provide a feasible escape route. A good map will often provide an alternative to an official detour route that is much shorter and faster if you are in a standard passenger vehicle (official detour routes have to accommodate large trucks and busses).

There are services such as XM NavTraffic that will deliver real-time traffic information. They will offer alternative routes that will guide you around these situations. Remember also that it is hurricane season and OnStar will provide emergency navigation during natural disasters.

3) Pay Special Attention To That Trailer

If you are pulling a boat, camping, or utility trailer it’s a lot easier to maintain and repair the trailer at home than it is in the ditch of an Interstate highway carrying 70 MPH traffic. Make sure the trailer lights are working before you load your car. (Bad ground wires are often the culprit when it comes to faulty trailer lights.) The hitch ball should be of the right size and firmly tightened and safety chains should be present and accounted for, and capable of holding the weight of the loaded trailer. Dry or worn out trailer wheel bearings may hold the record for spoiling vacation trips. Make sure they are well greased an adjusted before you hit the road.

4) Check Your Vehicle’s Weakest Link – Its Belts And Hoses

Modern automobiles are remarkably reliable and they will absorb a lot of neglect and abuse and still get you to your destination. The weakest links in the reliability chain are coolant hoses and the belts that convey power to alternators, water pumps, and other components external to the engine. If you see a vehicle dead along side the road there’s a good chance a belt or hose failed. These too have improved dramatically but they should be checked over periodically by the service facility you do business with.

5) Stay Alert Behind The Wheel -- Alternate Drivers If Necessary

Traffic accidents common to vacation travel can often be traced to fatigue and being in unfamiliar travel environments. Stay fresh, trade off driving, take breaks and get some circulation going. If you’re fresh and alert unexpected events or situations will be less likely to cause confusion or dangerous reactions.

Some vehicles such as the Chevrolet Traverse, Buick Lucerne and Cadillac Escalade offer Side Blind Zone Alert systems that will alert you if there is a vehicle in your blind zones.
The Side Blind Zone Alert system uses radar sensors on both sides of the vehicle (mounted behind the rear fascia) to scan a 150-degree field of view within a 3.5-meter range – alternating radar beams sweep the adjacent traffic lanes to “look” for other cars. Vehicles entering one of seven zones identified by the system will illuminate an LED symbol in the outside rearview mirror. The system ignores stationary objects, such as fire hydrants or parked cars.

In addition with Buick Lucerne’s Lane Departure Warning system, a camera-based lane detection system that warns driver of inadvertent lane changes. The camera, mounted near the inside rearview mirror, identifies traffic lane markings and provides audible alerts.

6) Be Smart About The Traffic Laws

Traffic laws and traffic signage are supposed to be uniform, but they aren’t. Generally, if you use common sense, move with the flow of traffic, and stay patient you will not run afoul of the law. It pays to be careful though because, according to the National Speedtrap Exchange (www.speedtrap.org), there are over 50,000 speed traps in the United States.

If you are ticketed, don’t fight your battle on the roadside. If you truly feel exploited, you can challenge your ticket in court by yourself, with help from the National Motorists Association (www.motorists.org ), or through an attorney.

Just don’t let it spoil your vacation!

These suggestions are based on ideas from The National Motorists Association. Established in 1982 to represent the interests and rights of North American motorists, it operates at the national level and through a system of state chapters. For more information about the NMA, call (608) 849-6000, or visit the NMA web site at http://www.motorists.org