Car Emergency Kit Checklist

None of these cost anything, and they decide more outcomes than anything you can buy.

• Tell someone your route and when you expect to arriveOn a rural road at night, the person who knows where you were headed is your whole rescue plan.
• Keep the tank above half from November to MarchHalf a tank is hours of heat in ten-minute bursts.
• Leave with the phone charged
• Agree the two rules out loud: stay with the car, and never drive into waterTwelve inches of moving water floats a car. A barricade is not a suggestion.
• Check tire pressure once a month, and the spare
• A day of any medication you depend on, kept in the car

The jobs that do not wait for winter: start the car, fix a flat, get out of a wreck, be seen.

• Seatbelt cutter + window breaker on the key ringIn the glovebox it is out of reach of a belted driver. Side windows only: windshields, and some newer side windows, are laminated and will not break.
• Lithium jump starter, chargedA battery has about two thirds of its starting power at freezing. Top the starter up when the clocks change.
• 12V tire inflator
• Reflective triangles or road flaresSo the plow, or the truck, sees you before it reaches you.
• A rechargeable flashlight
• A small first-aid kit
• Water that can live in a trunkA full bottle can split when it freezes. Sealed emergency pouches are made to sit in a kit for years.
• Calorie-dense food that does not freeze solidBars and nuts. Anything that turns into a brick at 20°F is not food that night.
• A power bank and a cable that fits your phoneYour phone is the radio, the map and 911, and its battery dies fast in the cold.

For the night the road stops moving. Warmth, traction, and a way to keep the tailpipe clear.

• A real blanket for each seat — wool, or a sleeping bagNot a foil space blanket on its own.
• Hat, gloves and a spare warm layer, left in the car all winter
• Hand warmers
• A folding shovelFor the tailpipe first and the tires second.
• Traction mats, or a bag of sand or cat litter
• Ice scraper and snow brushClear the roof too, or it slides onto the windshield at the first stop.

This is the part you read in the car. Short list on purpose.

• Stay with the carUnless you can see shelter you can reach (NWS). The car is warmth, and a plow or a search plane can see it; a person walking in wind-driven snow is invisible within a block.
• Clear the tailpipe and the snow packed around it before every startA cracked window does not protect you: in a controlled test, a snow-buried car reached lethal carbon monoxide within minutes with a window open.
• Run the engine about ten minutes an hour, a downwind window cracked
• Tie something bright to the antenna or door; dome light on at night while the engine runs
• Call 911 with where you are, then save the phone battery
• If the car is in water: seatbelts off, window open, children out first, then youBefore you call anyone: there is about a minute while the water is still below the side windows. After that, the water pressure holds the doors shut.