Many roadside emergency plans are based on avoiding a disaster in the first place, then trying to flag down help if something happens. It's understandable that not all people are adept at wilderness survival even if they could afford the time or resources to get training, but there are some clever techniques to keep you safe in a world that is sometimes deceptively convenient because of technology. Here are a few tech tips for roadside emergencies to help you get back to safety with tools that are increasingly common in the average vehicle.

Contacting Help During Communications Outages

When something bad happens, you need to get in contact with someone you can rely on as soon as possible. Although there are other concerns such as making sure everyone is in good health and avoiding specific dangers of your situation, the entire concept of calling for help has been changed in less than a decade.

Consider what happens when you make a call. You're assuming that you're in cell service range, but depending on where a roadside emergency happens, you can't be sure that your phone will work.

You need to not only have a contact plan for when your phone doesn't work but one for getting to an area that works. This means being able to figure out where the nearest cellular tower may be, or how to get to a place with other forms of communication.

Thankfully, there are tools to help you in most situations. Sites such as OpenSignal can show you areas where your phone service will work, and can even help you compare services from other companies in other areas. The only problem after that is being in an unlucky outage, which is often temporary. Just make sure to map out your trip and understand the towns and other locations on the way to have an idea of where in-town communications are if you need to walk or hitch a ride.

Towing Services And Easy Location Sharing

One of the most important contacts in your phone during a road trip should be a towing service like V & A Towing. Friends and relatives can be great, but when people aren't paying attention to their phones or have coincidental car troubles just like you, it's time to look to a skilled business.

Get a towing company's contact information before you leave on your trip, and ask about their towing range. If they can't reach every area, ask for any business partners or suggestions that could help you along different legs of the trip.

Using a smartphone GPS (global positioning system) as well as a paper map can help you share your location if you're lost during a roadside emergency. Using the same OpenSignal site as before--along with your phone's GPS, you can pinpoint your location or guess at your location based on the last landmark you saw and a lack of phone reception.

Contact an emergency towing professional to discuss other ways to stay safe and in contact while on the road.