10 Tips for Everyday Safety Precautions ...

One of the easiest everyday safety precautions to take is locking your doors. Even if you live in a safe neighborhood and you trust your neighbors, criminals could still target your home. Lock your doors when you are home, as well as when you leave the house. And get in the habit of locking your car doors as well! When I am driving alone, I lock my doors, especially in bigger cities.

When someone knocks on your door, before you answer you should take a look through the peephole. If you don’t recognize the person, and it’s not someone like the mailman or a maintenance man, then it might not be a good idea to open your door. Lots of robberies these days happen by homeowners simply opening their door, only to be forced inside and taken advantage of.

This goes without saying, but women driving alone are bright red targets for hitchhikers. There’s always the chance that it’s just a misfortunate soul who needs a ride, but why risk it? There will be others who come along, and you need to keep your safety in mind. When you are alone in a car with a stranger, you won’t have anywhere to go or any way to get help should the situation go wrong.

I know, this tip sounds cruel. But recently, criminals have been employing a new and dirty trick. In secluded areas of the highway or back country roads, they are leaving covered car seats alongside the road. When someone, usually a woman, stops to help the baby, the woman is either abducted or her car stolen. If you notice a small child or a car seat along the roadside, call 911 and do not stop!

You would be surprised at how many lives this simple mechanism in a car could save, yet how many people refuse to wear theirs. Start forming the habit of buckling up no matter how short of a drive you may have. If nothing else, wearing your seat belt will prevent you from getting a ticket in most states!

It’s always a good idea to have an emergency kit on hand. Leave one in your car and one in your house. Ideally, these kits should contain items suited to personal needs and local weather tendencies. A few good basics are water, non-perishable food items, a first aid kit, cell phone charger, a blanket, an extra jacket and pair of shoes, candles, matches, flashlight and batteries, money, and copies of documents you might need in the event that your personal belongings were all lost. Consider diapers and formula if you have a baby, and personal hygiene products as well.

This might be hard tip to avoid, depending on where you live or work, but lots of women are attacked or abducted from dark parking lots. If you can’t get around walking through a dark parking lot, carry your car keys in your hand. In the event of an emergency, you can press the panic button on your car remote. This is usually enough to scare a potential attacker away!

Learning a few basic moves in self-defense could possibly save your life! Most cities should have a place or two that offer self-defense classes, and they shouldn’t be too costly. In the event you should need to use what you learned, the class will have paid for itself!

Try to gather basic information on what to do when presented with natural disasters, a medical crisis, or even bomb threats. If nothing else, at least learn which natural disasters are likely to occur in your area, and what you should do in the event of one happening. Find out where to go, whom to contact, which items to grab, and how to stay safe until help arrives.

Whatever you do, when faced with any kind of danger, emergency, or scary situation, don’t panic. Stay calm and try to use common sense. The situation will more than likely get worse if you freak out. If you must freak out, freak out on the inside, but remain calm on the outside and do what needs to be done.

Have you ever been in a situation that called for extra safety measures? If so, how did you cope? Please share your tips below, and have a wonderful day!