My son graduated from kindergarten last week. So for our family – it is summer vacation! Summer is such a great time for road trips. Taking the kids to visit friends and family, going to the beach, the zoo, or any where that seems exciting! It’s a good thing that gas seems to be getting cheaper!

When I was younger my dad owned a towing business. That made him very over-protective. He has seen so many accidents and knows what can happen if you are not prepared for a trip. He has made me a little crazy too. I check everything before we go on a trip!

Did you know that most automotive safety experts rank the windshield as a vehicle’s third most important safety component behind seat belts and airbags? A properly installed windshield ensures the passenger-side airbag deploys properly and helps maintain a vehicle’s structural integrity in the event of a rollover. An improperly installed windshield could pop out during an accident. Without the windshield, a passenger can be thrown from the vehicle or struck by its collapsing roof – greatly increasing the chance of injury or death.

To help you have a safer trip this summer I have teamed up with Safelite to bring you 10 tips for keeping your family safe on the road! These tips are not just for those looooooong trips when the kids ask – are we there yet a million times, they are good tips to keep you safe every day!

• Check your tires!! I know this is an easy one but can you believe my husband drove like 300 miles one day, including 2 trips over the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, and the steel part of the tires were exposed. I thank God for protecting him that day. We should have felt around the tires and we would have felt the steel coming out of the tires. As soon as he got home we got a new tire and had the other tires checked!

• Check your fluids. Your car needs oil, power steering fluid, brake fluid, transmission fluid, and water to function properly. It is not a safe to have your car break down in the middle of the road, when it could have been prevented.

• Check your windshield. Think you can ignore a chip in your windshield? Think again! The windshield provides up to 30% of your vehicles structural integrity, and a chip smaller than 6 inches (or the size of a dollar bill) can easily be repaired by filling it with a special resin. A chip could turn into a crack at any time, often when you are least expecting it. Windshield repair is often a safe and economical alternative to a full windshield replacement.

• Forget do-it-yourself repair kits. The resin could easily shrink or yellow, lowering the quality of the repair. Safelite AutoGlass uses a patented repair process… A vacuum is created over the damaged area and the resin penetrates and fills the finest micro-cracks. The technician pulls off the vacuum changer and the UV light hardens the resin. Safelite’s resin is proven to be the strongest and longest lasting on the market.

• Check your car seats. Do you have small children in your car? Can you move them? If so, you need to tighten the belts. There are many places that will check your car seats to make sure your car seats are installed properly. Use a booster seat for your children that are too big for a car seat. It is so much safer for them. It is recommended that a child under 4’9 inches use a booster seat.

• Do you have a motor club? This will keep you safe by sending help to you quickly when you are in trouble. Allstate and AAA are very reasonable and are worth it if you get stuck far from home.

• Have an emergency kit in your trunk to use while waiting for a tow truck. It will warn people that there is an impaired vehicle. Hopefully they will slow down.

• Please don’t text and drive. This is a huge distraction while driving. If you need to talk to some one call them – on your Blue Tooth. Nothing is more important than the safety of your family. I can not believe how many people we drive by trying to type a text message. We can usually tell by the way they are driving. Check out the laws if you are traveling through other states, you may not be allowed to talk on a cell phone in certain states.

• Get your rest! It is so hard to drive while you are tired. Make sure you get enough sleep. You are not as alert when you are tired.

• Check your lights. I’m talking about head lights, brake lights, and check engine lights. It’s important that all you lights work so other can see you. Your check engine light can also warn you of a problem so you can get it fixed before you are far from home.

I hope some of these tips will help you have a safer summer. Below is a few more tips from Safelite about your windshield.

• The repair often takes just 30 minutes, and the result is barely visible and the windshield is strong again.

• With many insurance companies, there is no deductible for the repair.

About Safelite AutoGlass:
Safelite AutoGlass® was founded in 1947. Throughout our more than 60 years of service, our company has grown from a single store in Wichita, Kansas, to a national auto glass provider, serving nearly 4 million customers per year.

Through industry-leading 24-hour instant scheduling, convenient in-shop or mobile service, top-of-the-line materials and SafeTech™ certified technicians, you’ll find that Safelite AutoGlass offers superior customer service, value and quality.

Click here for more information about Safelite. More info:

I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and Safelite blogging program, for a gift card worth $30. For more information on how you can participate, click here.