HARTFORD -- A perfect storm of events has lead to a busy Monday for AAA.
This winter’s first storm is coming at the worst time. It expanded Thanksgiving travel into Saturday as people tried to beat the storm and it comes when a lot of people have not used their cars during the long holiday weekend, resulting in dead batteries.
”Our call volume is up over 100 calls an hour just in the Greater Hartford Area alone,” said AAA spokesperson, Amy Parmenter.
Mondays are one of AAA’s busiest days of the week because people who have stayed inside all weekend don’t realize their car battery is dead until they leave for work.
“The cold definitely doesn’t help with the batteries,” said Alex Cartagena, a AAA Roadside Assistant.
Thanksgiving weekend—one of the busiest travel weekends of the year— coupled with two days of snow— is causing headaches for drivers with all kinds of car troubles.
“I’ve been helping out a lot of people trying to get them jump started so that they can get to work, seeing if their battery is good or if it needs replacement, trying to help them out so that I can make sure they get to their day without any more hassles,” said Cartagena, who changed countless batteries and flat tires starting at 6 a.m. Monday.
He expects to be out here for the next few days helping stranded drivers.
“As the day goes on, we’ll see a mix-in of vehicles that require tows and tire issues and things that we get a lot more of once folks are out on those roads,” said Parmenter.
AAA has brought in extra people who help accommodate for the higher than usual call volume for the heavy weekend and storm.