How to Jump-Start a Car Battery

It is always a good idea for your teen to know some basic vehicle maintenance. Making sure they know how to do basic vehicle maintenance SAFELY is also VERY important. Here are some tips on how to safely jump-start a car battery.

Enjoy! - Bill Gough

Remember to:

• ALWAYS wear eye protection or eyeglasses when you jump-start a vehicle
• ALWAYS make sure the cables will be clear of any moving engine parts when the cars are started
• NEVER smoke while jump-starting a vehicle
• ALWAYS start with the ignition in both vehicles turned OFF

Please remember that improper jump-starting can damage the car's electrical components. Consult your car owner’s manual. Jump-starting a car can be dangerous; do it only if you know how.

Find a friend or family member with another car. The cars must not be touching and both ignitions should be off. Each battery has two metal terminals on it. One is marked positive (+); the other is negative (-).

Step 1: Attach one end of one cable to the dead battery's positive terminal. Step 2: Attach the other end of the same cable to the positive terminal of the battery in the starting vehicle. Step 3: Attach one end of the other cable to the negative terminal of the battery in the starting vehicle. Step 4: Attach the other end of that cable to the engine block, or frame, of the car with the dead battery. Look for unpainted metal surfaces. Do not attach the negative cable to the dead battery itself, and do not attach it to the frame anywhere near the battery. Step 5: Start the car that's providing the jump-start. Wait a moment and then try to start the car with the dead battery. If it does not start, stop trying and wait a few moments longer. Try again for no more than thirty seconds. Step 6: After the dead car is running, remove the cable connections in the reverse order that you put them on. That means that the first disconnection is from the frame, and the last is from the positive terminal of the car that has just been started.

c 2008 Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, 175 Berkeley Street, Massachusetts 02116

Inexperience Can Lead to Tragedy

Recently, I had the privilege to hear an interview with a man who has a very riveting story to share. Although his story was one that we all hope to never experience, he has turned a tragic event into a mission to help others prevent the same happening to them. You see, Chris Fore, as an adolescent was just beginning to move into a new chapter in his life. He was the typical American high school student who had the world ahead of his an athlete with a promising future raised with good moral values and very active in his church. He had the world in front of him and it looked brighter than ever. Then one night everything changed… Chris was just 16 when he experienced an event so terrible, that it would forever change the course of his future. But worse, it would ultimately end the future of his good friend. One night after bible study, Chris and his friends decided to drive over to another friends house to finish the evening playing basketball. Chris’s friend, who was driving, had just gotten his drivers license earlier that day, and as they were driving through rural neighborhoods with many somewhat blind driveways, he caved in to peer pressure and pushed his vehicle beyond a safe speed. His inexperience as a driver led to an accident that ended his life and left a memory with those that survived the crash that would last as long as they lived. Chris survived the car crash to share the story to hopefully, make teens realize how dangerous driving really is. Chris spent the next several months in a wheel chair and his aspirations of becoming a star athlete diminished. Today, Chris is a high school football coach where every day he preaches his message of teen driver safety. He speaks on this subject every opportunity he gets and has turned this tragedy into a lifelong mission of preventing the same happening to those he influences. Again, I had the privilege to hear an interview with Chris and I would like to help him share his story with you in his own words. If YOU would like a FREE 30 minute CD of the interview with Chris Fore to hear the ENTIRE story (It could save a life)... email Kim Robinson at KRobinson@Allstate.com or call Kim at 256-765-2200.

P.S. Peer pressure, inexperience, and speeding are the leading causes of teenage deaths in our country. There are steps that you can take to possibly prevent or at least, reduce the likelihood of this happening to your family. It is the worst feeling to have the most precious thing in the world taken away from you (I know because I lost my son to a terrible accident last year) and I want to do my best to keep that from happening to you or your family.

For more information on teen driver safety visit www.TeenDriverInsurance.com/AllAmerican

Tears For My Friends

With today's blog I thought I would let someone else's words do the talking for me. There are no safety advice or tips in this message but the words are very powerful and they remind us that if we fail in our mission to keep our children safe, the consequences for us will go on for as long as we live.

Tears for My Friend By Debbye Butle

I have a friend named Jeannette. She had a daughter and a son, until October 1986. Her daughter tested the odds of the effects of alcohol on her motor skills and judgment versus her knowledge about the roads with which she was so familiar.

The alcohol won.

Cindy never saw her 21st birthday. Jeannette, however, has to live through every one of her daughter’s candles-and-cake days — wondering what her daughter would look like now and what she would be doing with her promising life.

I have another buddy. His name is Bill. He is a devoted family man, and until a dreaded October night in 1992, he had two sons and a daughter. Now he has one son, one daughter, and 17 years of memories of a child who will never grow older. Bill, too, had to live the worst parental nightmare possible — a tired teenager with a set of car keys, a can of beer, and an invincible attitude on a late weekend night.Both of my friends are incredibly loving people and responsible parents. They were looking forward to graduations, a son- or daughter-in-law, and grandchildren. But they have been cheated out of some of the best and most meaningful adventures in life, and nothing or no one can change that cruel, crushing reality.

Maybe you know someone who has lost a son or daughter because of this deadly combination. Maybe it’s a neighbor. Maybe it’s a friend. Maybe it’s someone in your own family. Maybe the children’s deaths were caused by another person who was driving while intoxicated.It’s hard for me to believe I would ever have personally known one family — much less two — that would have to live through this gnawing, once-it-happens-it-never-goes-away pain. And it’s even more difficult to know what to say to them. Hugs help. But they’ll never replace the hugs from the children who are gone because of alcohol.

When Bill was saying goodbye to his son during the funeral, he did the most loving, courageous thing that any parent could do in a situation like this. With a lump in his throat that must have felt like the size of a softball, he looked out at the stunned young faces of his son’s high school friends. He said he never wanted to have to come to a funeral for this reason again. He said, “Don’t drink and drive.”

Bill told me later he hoped he didn’t sound like he was preaching. Well … I hope he did. I hope everyone listened. And I hope everyone remembers.

© Debbye Butler. Used with author’s permission. May not be reproduced in any fashion without author’s express permission. Debbye Butler is a freelance writer based in Indianapolis, Ind.

Learn the Brutal Truths

HOW MANY TEENS DIE IN CAR WRECKS?

• In the U.S. 6,000 teens die every year in car crashes. That’s an average of 16 a day. Don’t let your friends be one of the 16.
• Car crashes are the #1 killer of teens in the U.S., even more than alcohol, drugs, violence and suicide. Can you believe that?

WHY? WHAT CAUSES THIS?

• Speeding and dumb little errors are responsible for most of the fatal teen car wrecks. Can you say “preventable”?
• Nearly 40% of all fatal teen crashes are caused by speeding.
• News flash: Life is a better rush than death.
• 87% of teens admit to speeding. Be a rebel and drive the speed limit.
• Almost 25% of teen guys say they speed because it’s “fun”. Their injured friends, however, disagree.
• In 2004, over 2,500 teens were in fatal crashes because of failing to yield or veering out of their lanes. Could there be any dumber reasons to die?

ARE THERE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN GUY & GIRL DRIVERS?

• Twice as many teen guys die in car wrecks than teen girls. Just bad luck or is there something else going on here?

WHAT KIND OF IMPACT DO FRIENDS HAVE?

• Adding just one guy passenger to your car doubles the risk of a crash. Weird, but true.
• The more friends you add to your car, the greater the risk of a wreck. Drive like your friendships depend on it.
• 44% of teens say they drive safer without friends in the car. Next time you drive with friends, invite your conscience to ride up front.
• 50% of teens say they wouldn’t speak up if a friend was driving recklessly. They just need to grow a backbone.
• A lot of teens drive recklessly to impress their date. Smart drivers have nothing to prove.

ANYTHING ELSE I SHOULD KNOW?

• 56% of teens talk on their cell phones while driving, and 13% read or write text messages. Are these distractions worth an ambulance ride to the ER?
• Some teens think they’ll get pulled over if they don’t drive as fast as everyone else on the freeway. This just in: They won’t!
• Two-thirds of teens who die in car wrecks are not buckled up. Sad when people can’t even do the basics.
• If you drive between 9 p.m. and midnight, you’re twice as likely to get in a crash. So focus, man, focus!
• Some of the deadliest days for teen crashes are July 4th, New Year’s Eve, and the 100 days between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Decide not to become a statistic.

WHAT ARE THE 15 CONSEQUENCES OF CARELESS OR RECKLESS DRIVING?

1. A really expensive ticket
2. Higher insurance rates
3. Losing your driving privileges
4. Losing your license
5. Seriously hurting a friend
6. Seriously hurting yourself
7. Being sued and going to court
8. Damaging property and having to pay for it yourself
9. Killing somebody you care about
10. Killing a stranger
11. Being arrested and charged as a felon
12. Serving time in jail
13. Not being able to get into college because of a felony record
14. Not being able to get a job because of a felony record
15. Loss of one’s dreams, one’s future, and one’s reputation with friends

NOW SHARE THE BRUTAL TRUTHS. SPEAK OUT. CHANGE MINDS. SAVE LIVES. (This information was provided by http://www.keepthedrive.com)