John Matthews
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON — (WMAL) With frigid weather and a chance of snow both Thursday and Friday evening, AAA is putting “all hands on deck” and calling in several extra crews to man the phones and be out on the road to help stranded motorists.
“We may see a 20 to 30 to 40% spike in call volumes compared to the weeks before,” AAA spokesman John Townsend told WMAL. “Last winter, we had 8.1 million rescues because of the extreme conditions.”
AAA technicians have noticed that cars with newer technology, such as push-button starts, can drain their batteries faster than older cars, because the keyless fobs are constantly in contact with the ignition systems. In addition, he says with more drivers charging their phones and other devices in the car, batteries are carrying a bigger load than ever. “The most common call we get is because the car won’t start its batteries,” Townsend said.
Because of the strain on car batteries increasing, there is a need for people to be more conscious of when their batteries were last replaced or how they have been acting before the weather gets bad. Townsend says many motorists don’t realize that the average car battery lasts about three years – any longer than that, and he says drivers “are living on borrowed time.”
Between Thursday evening through Saturday afternoon, Brian LeSoresa, a National Weather Service meteorologist, warns drives, “It looks like it’s going to be slippery conditions and hazardous driving conditions later tonight through Saturday afternoon until temperatures increase above freezing.”
If drivers can do two things today to avoid calling AAA tomorrow, Townsend says you should fill your tires and have your car battery checked before the bitter cold arrives.
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