Stop Sitting In Your Car While You're Pumping Gas

As a Midwestern native of Chicago, I can assure you of one very certain thing: I HATE winter. It's cold, people forget how to drive so there are way more accidents, and there is just an overall sense of misery and woe that comes with the long ensuing 4 months or so of the season. But like anyone with a job and a life that involves leaving the house, we still have to get to where we're going even if getting to your car involves a bit of sidewalk shoveling.

With that dreadful thought, we put on the marshmallow coats and gloves, lace up our boots and open the door and look out into the cold, 6am world as if the blizzard from "Day After Tomorrow" is a reality. Then we let out a deep sigh and make our way out to our cars and pray that it starts up, hoping that there isn't an ice block where the engine used to be, and that the liquid in the gas tank hasn't turned solid.

While you're waiting for the engine to warm up, you notice that the fuel gauge has dipped below the half-tank mark. You let out another sigh of despair because you know that means you'll have to take the time out of your day to spend another agonizing amount of time outside of your warm car filling up the tank so that you aren't constantly reminded of the fact that it could freeze if it goes any lower.

At the pump, you pay for your gas and put the nozzle in. "So it begins" you think to yourself, imagining that you'll probably freeze before the tank is full. During summer, filling the tank is almost an afterthought. But in the midst of a Chicago winter it's like God has played a cruel joke on you, and that you for some reason think that he wants you to suffer for that time you never returned those hedge trimmers to your neighbor. You stand there, teeth chattering away as you wipe the snow from your face. As you slip into a cold state of regret that you even left the house to begin with, you have an idea to combat the cold. The interior is looking pretty warm right about now. It's just egging you on to get in for a moment. "Just for a bit" you think to yourself. You slip in quickly since the car is off, and you don't want any heat to escape. you sit back as the tank fills, until you hear the click from the pump that tells you it's time to re-enter the arctic freeze once more. You slide out of your seat, unaware that a very difficult lesson is about to be learned as you make your way back to the pump.

Driving tip time: NEVER sit in your car while you're at the pump. Ever.

It's inviting, sure, but I see this way to often while I'm at the Gas station and I can't help but cringe and prepare my body for a life-or-death sprint once that person reaches for the nozzle after they get back out again. As you're probably aware, gasoline is not exactly a safe substance to work with. Spilling it can cause an environmental catastrophe. Breathing in just a small amount of fumes can be enough to kill you. But the big issue I'm concerned with here revolves around electricity. Specifically, static electricity.

You know that experiment you did as a kid where you took a balloon and rubbed it on your shirt, and how it made your hair stand on end when you put it near your head right after? That same principle applies to your bottom and the base of that seat that you just slid into. You may not be aware of it, but when you sit in your car, or even rub a surface of the interior, you're generating static electricity, and when that happens, that built up energy will need a place to go. For many unaware drivers, that place happens to be the metal trigger handle of the gas nozzle that is currently pumping highly flammable liquids into their cars. All it takes is one small spark to turn a routine fill up into a disastrous and deadly fireball, as you will see by the video below:

There are several do's and dont's of filling up at the pump. This one is a HUGE don't. Sitting down in your car generates static electricity which in turn can spark a fire just by touching the pump after sitting in your car. As I said, I see it way to often at the pump, and I either want to yell at the person doing it or get ready to high tail it out of there as they reach for the nozzle. Do yourself and everyone around you a favor and stop risking your lives and the lives of others because you were ill-prepared for the whether. Honestly, I'd rather go to the hospital for a minor cold than for a skin graft because I burned off my entire hand / face.