What to do if power lines fall on your car

AccuWeather

Safety experts say drivers need to know what to do if power lines fall on their vehicle during a severe storm or strong winds. AccuWeather's Bill Wadell reports.

Transcript

00:00 (upbeat music)

00:02 What should you do if power lines fall

00:07 on your car during a storm?

00:09 911, what's your emergency?

00:11 I'm stuck on a road with power lines in front of me.

00:14 The safest place to stay is inside of your vehicle

00:18 and call 911.

00:20 Erin Hollinshead with Safe Electricity

00:22 says try to stay calm

00:24 and don't touch anything but your phone.

00:26 Only utility crews can determine

00:29 if the lines are energized.

00:31 Hollywood has given us some sort of idea

00:33 that if there's a downed power line,

00:35 it's gonna be crackling and smoking

00:36 and there's gonna be flames shooting out of it.

00:38 That's not how it works.

00:39 It really is a silent killer.

00:41 Wait for the all clear.

00:43 The only time you should try to escape

00:45 is if there's smoke or fire inside your vehicle.

00:49 Put your arms across your body.

00:51 You wanna make a clear hop from your vehicle

00:54 to the ground with both feet together.

00:56 Then you wanna make hops away from that vehicle.

01:00 For AccuWeather, I'm Bill Waddell.

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