Spike In Dead-Battery Calls As Plunging Temps Ambush Area Motorists
By John Ostapkovich
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Cold weather is murder on car batteries. And that proved true this morning, when temperatures across the Delaware Valley plummeted into the low teens.
Dead battery calls were up about 50 percent, says Perry Stanger, AAA's regional club fleet operations manager.
"Cold weather and warm weather affect the battery because the internal workings of the battery just don't adapt to that temperature," Stanger explains. "Once you get below 30 degrees is when you start to see the problems, or when you get above 85-90 degrees."
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Dispatcher Dan DiMusio is point man for AAA members with auto issues.
"We're handling a lot of dead batteries with the cold weather and everything like that, and if the batteries are really, really dead, we're either selling batteries to them or having to tow the cars," DiMusio tells KYW Newsradio.
Higher volume means slower response time, but DiMusio says there's priority response at AAA for those stuck on a roadside somewhere without a warm place to wait.
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