TRAVEL TIP #7 BE SAFE!

TRAVEL TIP #7 Be safe!
©2010


Wow, another crazy week. I'm just now catching up with my BLOG and have some important things to say about personal safety. Take care of yourself, so that your travels are as enjoyable as they can possibly be.

Traveling safely is absolutely the highest priority for a successful trip. Nothing can destroy the joy of travel faster than a thief or mugger taking advantage of a situation in which you become vulnerable. Use your head. If your “instincts” say that a situation is threatening put yourself first. It’s your trip. It’s your property. It’s your life.

1. Be alert. Pay attention to all people who are in close proximity to you. Avoid putting yourself into positions where you are isolated. There are no guarantees that there is safety in a crowd. Certainly there is a strange phenomenon in which people disregard persons in peril. So don’t count on a security guard to come to the rescue. Recent news reports show how willingly some people will stand by and watch a beating as though it were mere entertainment.

2. Take a personal safety class. Many police officers offer self defense training as a
community service. It is not necessary to pay for self defense training. Call your local law enforcement office and ask for instruction in self defense.

3. Drive during daylight hours.

4. If you go out at night, do so with a friend. Be particularly careful when in
unfamiliar territory. When traveling abroad, be particularly cognizant of potential
dangers. Always check out the State Department advisories as they pertain to your destination.

5. Don’t assume that you are safe in a small town or in YOUR town. Thievery,
assault, kidnappings occur everywhere.

6. When traveling alone, create the illusion that you are with your husband. Talk to
The hotel clerks about places that you and your husband can have dinner, see the sights, etc. Ask for two room keys.

7. Place a bogus passenger or the illusion of a passenger beside you in your vehicle.
I have been looking for a realistic mannequin for a long time, but they seem to be
very expensive and in short supply. For the time being, I position a wide brim straw hat on top of the passenger seat, creating the illusion of two people in the
vehicle. No one is more vulnerable than s/he who is alone.

8. Where legal, carry items that can be used for self defense. You will have to check
out local laws to ensure that you are in compliance. I carry pepper spray, an air horn, walkie talkies, a whistle, a taser, a cell phone, a battery powered emergency flasher, and alarms to put under my hotel room doors. If an intruder tries to pass
through a hotel door or window, one of the alarms will screech an ear piercing siren and in many cases will frighten the intruder enough to discourage further invasion.

9. Use common items for self defense. Several years ago a student who was a
former MP (military police officer) gave a self defense speech in one of my classes. He asked us to look in our purses and backpacks for items we could use
to protect ourselves. I remember him holding up a ball point pen and instructing us to go for the eyes. We squirmed, but understood if it’s our life or an assailant’s
eye, we choose life. Also, Jake told those of us with nylon bristle hairbrushes to imagine the efficacy of being assaulted with multiple, pencil point bristles in the eye. The one tip I most often recall was not one which relied on personal items
for self defense. He asked another student to stand in the front of the room beside him. Then he raised his foot knee-high and quickly thrust the foot through the air adjacent to the side of the other student’s knee. Of course he stopped short of
actually hitting the person’s leg, but assured us that it takes very little force to dislocate a knee. Slam your foot into the side of the knee, and your attacker will
be disabled.

10. Always carry enough cash to appease a thief. One New York law enforcement
officer advised me to carry at last $100 cash at all times. Give it away without hesitation if you are threatened. Accordingly, it is important to turn over your purse and its contents, which may be sufficient to save yourself from a personal attack.

11. Strap a fanny pack with a steel reinforced strap around your waist, and never,
never be separated from the pack. Wearing a fanny pack looks a bit dorky, but
it frees both hands for eating, handling doorknobs, tugging suitcases, etc.

12. Never lay a purse on a seat beside you in a restaurant and never lay a purse on
the table. By the time a robber grabs the bag, he or she will be on the run while you are still trying to get out of your seat.

13. Never place a purse on the passenger seat of an automobile. Your side window
can be smashed in an instant when you stop for a traffic light. Before you have a chance to call for help, the thief will be gone. Place your purse on the floor by your feet. If you are going to secure your cell phone, fasten the fanny pack strap to your seatbelt strap or secure it to the frame underneath the driver’s seat.

14. Carry only one credit card and a lot of cash in your bag. BUT, don’t show large
wads of cash to anyone in public.

15. Hide a photocopy of your driver’s license, extra cash, and an extra credit card in
your vehicle. If your purse is stolen, you will have backup resources to aide you
in your travel.

16. Keep your gas tank filled. And, fill up at the end of each travel day, so you will
be ready to go the following morning.

17. Remember, if there is a power outage, gas pumps will not work. Neither will
ATMs be accessible.

18. Always leave an itinerary with a trusted friend or family member, and check
in with them at the end of each day. If loved ones are concerned, promise them
an email each night and tell them your travel route and destination for the following day.

19. Listen for hazardous weather reports and use your head! If you drive INTO a
storm, your name had better be Jim Cantore or Reed Timmer. Otherwise, you are
asking for trouble.

20. Study crime statistics of new areas through which you will be traveling. KNOW
where the dangerous areas are and know how to respond.

21. Keep your cell phone charged but understand that there may be occasions when
you cannot get a signal. A walkie talkie with a two-mile range could be your
lifeline.

22. Do not travel with expensive jewelry and remember to “trash” your car, so that
you create the appearance of a casual, “broke” wanderer with nothing worth stealing.

23. Women should wear a ballcap and a plaid shirt so as to make a “distant
impression” of a male driver. Men’s mirrored sunglasses will complete the
façade.

24. Don’t allow yourself to become isolated. Stay in open, well lit areas, and walk in
the company of families with children.

25. Many rest areas are perfect locations for robbery. Only nap in a rest area during
daylight hours. Park your car beside a space reserved for the state police or in a
space between cars where families are coming and going.

26. Never hang your purse on the rest room stall hooks. I hang the strap of my fanny
pack around my neck or strap it high on my rib cage. One of my friends lays her
purse on top of the eye- level shelf provided specifically for purses.

27. Don’t trust shopping mall parking lots for personal safety. Many robberies,
muggings, and kidnappings take place in broad daylight in shopping mall lots.
Have you seen surveillance videos of women who were last seen coming out of
a mall store when a man approached them? Keep these images in mind at all times.
You are not safe shopping. It just seems that way.

28. Before getting inside your vehicle, check the back seat to be sure no one is hiding
there. Once inside the vehicle, slam the door lock down as quickly as possible. A neighbor of ours was shopping with her daughter at a large shopping mall when a man began walking earnestly toward their car. The mother told the daughter to lock her door quickly. The daughter protested, saying that her mom was overreacting again. No sooner had she pressed down the lock, the man reached for the door handle, and tried to open the door. It was broad daylight and there were two of them.

29. Never park in a space beside a van with sliding doors. You can be easily
abducted and driven off site.

30. Never allow yourself to be placed inside a vehicle. Once you lose control inside a vehicle, you lose. If a car is following you as you walk along a sidewalk, turn around 180 degrees and walk in the opposite direction. It will take the driver a few minutes to reverse his/her driving direction and give you a little time to get to a safe area.

31. If you are thrown inside a trunk, pull out the wiring for the tail lights of the
vehicle. This will “signal” a police traffic stop and you have a chance of
being rescued by a patrolling trooper.

32. If you are abducted and in the passenger seat, wait until your abductor stops at an
intersection. Then QUICKLY slam your foot on top of the driver’s accelerator pedal foot. Ram the car into the vehicle in front of you. Once there is a traffic accident, you will have other people on hunt of a hit-and-run driver.

33. Stay calm and alert. Use your head. You can cry later. Do not get into a
threatening situation in the first place. Travel to cities with relatively low
crime rates. Let city managers know that you are choosing safe cities over
their cities. Every word of concern about crime may encourage absolute
serious efforts to address the problem.

34. Park in the well lit front parking lots of hotels. Never park in dark areas at the
rear of a hotel. This means you need to arrive early at your hotel, check in, and
THEN go sight seeing.

35. Read everything available about travel safety! Rely on law enforcement and
the state department to be your guides for a happy trip! Be safe. Take responsibility for your safety. Do your homework! Protect yourself on the road.

36. Stay sober. A drunk lacks reasoning ability and opens him/herself to trouble on many fronts. Alcohol is not your friend when your safety is on the line. Look at the statistics of alcohol related crimes on college campuses and you will be convinced, unless you are drunk while you are reading or just stupid.

Down the road I’ll talk about hotel safety. The steps for safe travel have only begun with this post.

HAVE SAFE TRAVELS!!! Always safe.

I cannot guarantee you personal safety. You are responsible for your well being. Be smart! Be safe! Always safe.