You walk out to your car, stick the key in the ignition and nothing. It’s dead. This is a common scenario during Minnesota winters. Before you take the jumper cables out of the trunk, make sure you know the proper way to hook them up.

Nearly 6,000 motorists each year suffer serious eye injuries or even blindness from working around batteries. To help make this important task easier, free jump-start safety stickers are available from the Sight & Hearing Association. These fluorescent stickers — perfect for placement underneath the hood of a vehicle — provide do’s and don’ts for a proper jump-start as well as a diagram showing the proper placement of jumper cables.

Whether dead or not, batteries can release an explosive hydrogen gas; all it takes is a small spark to ignite the gas and cause an explosion. When an individual leans over the engine to connect jumper cables, the battery could explode into their eyes.