Emergency kit could help in cases like mom-and-daughter crash, CAA rep says
Kit includes flares to get attention, candles and blankets to keep warm
A roadside emergency kit could help anyone in a situation like that faced by a mother and daughter who survived a night on the side of a Manitoba highway after a car crash Sunday night, an official from CAA Manitoba says.
"It's the last thing you want to use, but it's the best thing to know you have if you ever do have to use it," said Liz Kulyk, corporate manager of communications for CAA Manitoba.
Kristen Hiebert and her four-year-old daughter, Avery, spent more than 10 hours in –20 C weather after their car slid off Highway 23 on Sunday evening.
The car wasn't visible from the road in the dark and Hiebert's arms were broken.
The first step is getting help if you're stranded, Kulyk said. If you don't have a cellphone or cellphone service, flag someone down with a flare, flashlight or reflective flag from the kit, she said.
The kit includes tools, flares, flashlights, food, blankets, gloves and a first aid kit. The flares light the same way as a candle and are about three feet tall, Kulyk said.
"I know she was down deep in a gully off the side of a highway, but even if she was able to get up as close to the road as possible, that would have been something that could have alerted someone, even if she could have thrown it up onto the roadway," she said.
"Absolutely someone would see that and stop and say 'What's going on,' and probably do some investigation," she said.
On a highway where there are no cars going by, it's important for people who are stranded to stay in the car so they don't get lost and to keep warm, Kulyk said. The kit includes about a dozen tea lights.
"The heat from the candle alone should be enough to keep yourself and the people that you're with warm for a short period of time," she said.
Even though cell service outside of Winnipeg can be spotty, Kulyk said to travel with a cellphone and tell someone where you're going, when you're leaving, and when you expect to arrive.
"If somebody in my family said, 'Hey, I'm driving Brandon. I'm leaving at 10 a.m.,' they should get there at 12:30, 1 at the latest," she said.
"If I don't hear from them and they don't say, 'I'm here, I'm safe,' that's going to set off some alarm bells in my head and I'll probably start to ask."
Roadside emergency kits are available at CAA Manitoba.