Car safety 101: Crashes, road rage, weather and more

Life Kit

NPR

Health & Fitness, Self-improvement, Kids & Family, Education, Business

4.3 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 24 March 2025

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

You might know the basics of car safety, like buckling your seatbelt or using your turn signal. But what do you do in car emergencies? This episode, Hector Carias, an officer with the California Highway Patrol, breaks down how to handle emergency situations.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Public media counts on your support to ensure that the reporting and programs you depend on thrive.
0:06.2	Make a recurring donation today to get special access to more than 20 NPR podcasts,
0:12.1	perks like sponsor-free listening, bonus episodes, early access, and more.
0:16.8	So start supporting what you love today at plus.npr.org.
0:23.5	You're listening to LifeKit from NPR.
0:29.3	Hey everybody, it's Mariel.
0:32.1	I'm going to share a deep, pretty dark secret with you.
0:38.6	Often, when I'm driving over a bridge or next to a body of water, an intrusive thought will pop into my head.
0:46.5	What would happen if I lost control of the car or somebody hit me and my car and I ended up in the water.
0:55.8	Tell me I'm not alone in this.
0:59.1	The thought doesn't stop there for me because then I get really practical with it.
1:03.6	And this is probably why they picked me to host a show like Life Kit because I'm like,
1:07.6	seriously though, what would I do?
1:10.5	Are there best practices?
1:12.5	Do you try to open the door or the window?
1:15.1	What if you can't?
1:16.4	How much time do you have?
1:17.9	Turns out there are answers to these questions.
1:20.7	This particular scenario has been studied and tested.
1:24.1	Yes, researchers have submerged cars in pursuit of this knowledge.
1:27.9	And I don't know about you, but knowing what I should do if this ever happens makes me feel a little better about the whole thing.
1:35.1	Luckily, cars don't fall into lakes and rivers very often.
	...

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