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Thanksgiving is just a few days away. We’re all excited for family, football, relaxation, and a break from the regular. But it seems every year we forget that in all the chaos of preparation, we must take precautions to keep ourselves and our children safe.
Remember that cooking is the leading cause of housefires. And Thanksgiving day as a hectic time to be on the road. So, we’d like to offer up these safety tips for Thanksgiving.
Safety Tips For Driving On Thanksgiving:
- Check the weather along your entire route just so you know what kind of conditions you’ll be driving in.
- Don’t use that cell phone. It’s never worth it. If it’s for navigation, mount it in a way that you don’t have to take your eyes off the road to know where it wants you to go. No distractions. It’s going to be one of the busiest days on the road.
- Know more than one route, even if you have a navigation system.
- Keep attentive. The road is going to be hectic. We can promise you that. If you have kids in the car, make sure they know how important it is to keep quiet. Give them something to keep them occupied, like a book to read, paper to draw on, music to listen to – whatever keeps them from distracting you…or better yet, whatever makes them fall asleep. It’ll help you keep your eyes and ears on the road.
- Remember work zones may be on your route and use caution while driving through them.
- Get rest before your drive, no matter how small.
- Don’t follow too closely. Everyone is trying to get to where they want to be, and fast. There will be fender-benders. Avoid them by putting extra distance between you and the car ahead of you.
- Follow speed limits. If you’re on a long drive, you can bet speed limits will change often. So keep an eye on them.
- Make frequent stops. That urge to stretch your legs is a distraction. Keep hydrated, make sure you’re comfortable when driving, and make stops so you can get out, stretch your legs, walk around, and get re-energized.
- Clean before you leave – your headlights, your taillights, your windows – anything that may obstruct your view of the road. Make sure your windows don’t get foggy, and warm up your car before you start driving.
- Pull off the road if you suspect car trouble. Any indication of car trouble should be a red flag to pull off to the side of the road and perhaps have your vehicle inspected by an expert.
Safety Tips For Cooking On Thanksgiving
- Don’t wear loose clothes. With so many burners on, you’re safer not wearing anything that may easily move over a flame (or anything hot) without you realizing.
- Don’t leave your food unattended – if you have to leave the room, have another family member watch the kitchen and what’s being cooked. Just make sure they know where everything is in case they need to use your kitchen appliances.
- Use a timer to remind yourself that your stove or oven is on – it’s a secondary measure of precaution aside from your attentiveness, which may be occupied since family is around.
- Keep anything that can catch fire away from the stove and other heated appliances – kitchen gloves/mitts, paper towels, kitchen towels, paper bags or food packaging etc.
- Clean your stove before you start cooking – any residual mess (*like grease buildup) CAN catch fire.
- Don’t clean until all your appliances are cool. This can be an easy one to forget, especially if you don’t want a mess to wake up to in the morning.
- Have a fire extinguisher handy and make sure you’re trained how to use it.
- Double check your kitchen before bed to make sure everything is off
- Make sure your smoke alarms are good to go by using the test button, and make sure they’re set up in the kitchen and in all rooms with closed doors.
- Don’t let children or animals near the kitchen. This is important for while you’re prepping, while you’re cooking, and even while you’re cleaning
We really do tend to forget that accidents happen on Thanksgiving. Take these steps to help prevent accidents from happening to you and your loved ones. And have a Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday for families and a time for giving thanks. By the same token, it signals the beginning of the Christmas season, a tradition of giving, with many stores now opening on Thanksgiving Day, at midnight or in the early hours of the morning. Some stores offer fantastic deals to save on gifts.
Ironically, the ugly side of commercialism has also reared its head on Black Friday with shopping deals turning into shopping frenzies. Shoppers competing for limited supplies of merchandise have literally stampeded the stores. People still remember 2008 when the 34-year old employee at a Long Island Walmart store died as a result of a mob rush (New York Daily News).
Shoppers have also been hit by a cars in parking lots, gotten into fights with employees over merchandise, sent injured children to the hospital and fallen asleep at the wheel when driving home, according to the website Black Friday Death Count.
Your safety is more important than any sales item you could ever buy. CNET provides some interesting facts about Black Friday shopping that may encourage you to avoid stores and shop online instead. Here are a few:
- Many stores offer the same sales online. Large stores promote what sales you can buy online or in the store and many have free shipping with purchases over a certain monetary amount.
- Sales go on for days. Many sales last beyond Black Friday. In addition to Black Friday, there is Cyber Monday now too.
- Better deals online. Some computer manufacturers offer better online deals than what the retail stores are offering.
Take precautions on Black Friday. Our Long Island attorneys at Palermo Touhy Bruno wish you a safe and happy Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
