Photo By Scott Sturkol | Installation Safety Manager Ed De Leon with the Installation Safety Office speaks to...... read more read more
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As part of a housing town hall meeting for residents of South Post Housing at Fort McCoy, Installation Safety Manager Ed De Leon took the opportunity to give event-goers a chance to learn more about winter safety.
De Leon went through a series of slides to discuss a variety of subjects that affect people during winter. One of the main subjects included winter vehicle preparedness and safety.
“We already had one snowfall,” De Leon said. “We’ve been fortunate so far, but again just prepare yourselves. When preparing your vehicle for winter, remember to take care of your charging system. The cold really does dampen your vehicle.
“If you have one of those newer vehicles where you have that infotainment center, you have all these electronics, you have these high beam LED lights, all that will drain your battery, and the cold will zap that up” De Leon said. “Myself, about two years ago, I just changed out my battery, and I’m starting to feel that it’s starting to slow down a little bit.”
De Leon also addressed how it’s important for people to make sure vehicles have fluids filled with the right things during winter.
“Check those oil and fluid levels,” De Leon said. “I know some people will try to go to a thinner weight oil in the wintertime so that viscosity is a little bit thinner, so it will be easier for startup. Also remember winter washer fluid. This I can’t stress enough. The winter washer fluid … doesn’t freeze up inside your system if you have it accessible.”
De Leon encourage people to have a vehicle kit for winter in their autos for the cold weather too.
“Get your vehicle kit together,” he said. “You know what you want to get. Sometimes you can just look at a kit that’s out there and think, well, maybe I want to build my own kit or you just want to buy that kit and pick it apart. Whatever you think you need, get it now before you actually need it.”
In another area, De Leon stressed safety with ladders while decorating for Christmas.
“Remember when you’re going up high to hang up your decorations, the majority of the falls occur below 4 feet,” De Leon said. “You don’t have to be very high to get injured.
“About 160 decorations are used each holiday season, and falls account for about 40 percent of those,” De Leon said.
De Leon highlighted driving safety as well.
“Traffic accidents are three times higher during this time of year,” De Leon said. “And, of course, at night it tends to be a little bit higher. And talk about the drunk drivers, it’s not always you, it could be somebody else that could be impacting your holiday festivities. Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's are the highest of all of the traffic accidents seasons.”
De Leon also mentioned people need to be aware of fire safety during the holidays.
“Holiday home fires … are at higher prevalence … during this time of year,” De Leon said. “If you have candles, always make sure you keep a good eye on them. My wife has candles all the time, so I make sure I put them out at night before I go to bed.
“Real Christmas trees versus artificial trees … are at a higher chance of catching on fire,” De Leon said. “And, on average, 40 home fires per day during the holidays are caused by children’s play. It either comes from either candles, oil, or other things. Again, just be cognizant of those things.”
These and even more winter safety tips are available at the Army Safety webpage at https://safety.army.mil.
To hear more from the Fort McCoy Installation Safety Office, stop by their office in building 1678 or call 502-898-3403.
Fort McCoy’s motto is to be the “Total Force Training Center.”
Located in the heart of the upper Midwest, Fort McCoy is the only U.S. Army installation in Wisconsin.
The installation has provided support and facilities for the field and classroom training of more than 100,000 military personnel from all services nearly every year since 1984.
Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/fortmccoywi, and on X (formerly Twitter) by searching “usagmccoy.”
Also try downloading the My Army Post app to your smartphone and set “Fort McCoy” or another installation as your preferred base. Fort McCoy is also part of Army’s Installation Management Command where “We Are The Army’s Home.”
| Date Taken: | 11.18.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 11.18.2024 17:57 |
| Story ID: | 485608 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 712 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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