For Your Safety: Automobile awareness is extension of situational awareness – Prescott Daily Courier

Our next focus will be on your safety while in your car, and I dont mean wearing seatbelts. Observing some of these suggestions will help you stay safe here or abroad.

When you approach your car especially at night look under it as you approach. Make sure nobody is there. Peek into the back seat to determine that you are alone. Lock your doors immediately after entering your car.

Dont sit and text, phone or do paperwork, in an unlocked car with your attention focused elsewhere. Fifty percent of all auto theft results from doors left unlocked, especially if there are parcels or firearms visible in the vehicle.

Keep your vehicle doors locked at all times even in your home driveway.

In parking lots especially after dark park under lights and as close to the stores as possible. Make sure your windows are closed tightly.

Carjackings are a huge problem the nation over. In traffic, always park far enough behind the car in front of you so you can see their rear tires. That will give you room to pull out and speed away if a carjacking appears imminent. Carjackers do not normally want to shoot you; they want your car. Keep your windows up and doors locked! Women alone are big targets.

Am I being followed? Someone wants your car, your money, or perhaps YOU! Check your rear-view mirror as you alternate between slowing down and speeding up. Make two right turns in a short distance and then a quick left turn. A rapid U TURN works well too. Still being followed? Call 911 and alert police keep driving and stay on the phone until a police unit joins your convoy! Never drive home!

Someone jumps into your car and orders you to drive away, do not drive out of town! Drive to a police or fire station, crash your car into something in a populated area or, if in traffic, ram your car into the car in front of you and then back into the car behind you. RUN! Be careful at red lights and in traffic jams. Insurance is usually forgiving if your life was in danger.

Be wary of females hitching rides they frequently have a hidden accomplice.

And, as always, exercise Situational Awareness wherever you are and if you have a gut feeling that something is wrong heed that feeling! Gut feelings have a purpose.

K.H. Kraft has over 40 years of affiliations with Intelligence and Police organizations. Sources for these articles are decades of personal experience and numerous official manuals.

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For Your Safety: Automobile awareness is extension of situational awareness - Prescott Daily Courier