Protecting Yourself While Driving
How can I stay safe while driving?
To make your car safer from car-jacking, for example, it's all about access into the vehicle and having keys. So it's important when you're driving in your vehicle to keep the doors locked at all times. That prevents someone from hopping in your passenger seat or back seat and forcing you to drive away. So the simple practice of when you get in your car, close the door, lock them immediately even before you start the car; that'll make you much, much safer.The other tactic, when you're driving in traffic and you're coming to a street light, again, make sure those doors are locked and your windows are rolled up, preventing someone from getting access to you while inside the vehicle.
What should I do if a stranger offers to help when my car is disabled?
You're on the road and you get a flat tire and you're a woman and you get a flat tire and you pull over. Once you get out of the car especially if you are real attractive you could have five guys pulling off the road to help you, you know, in no time. What do you do in that kind of situation? Where it appears this is a good samaritan but I got to tell you there's all kinds of stories about predators out there patrolling the highways when they see that opportunity and that's what it is is a golden opportunity in their mind. And they'll pull right over to try to get you in the car, and take you to a phone, take you to the service station, anything, to get you in that car. What do you do? How do you know whether it's legitimate to get into the car or not? I'll tell you what I tell my wife and everybody else. I buy her a subscription to a road service where all she has to do is call and get Triple AAA or some road service to come and change her tire. Thank the person very much for stopping and tell them that I've already called the police, "The police are on the way", or "My husband's on the way", whatever you're going to say. Again just to break that tension, to remove that opportunity, and you'll be better off for it. But that goes back to planning. If you didn't plan ahead, you didn't have that road service coverage, you didn't carry your cell phone, you'll be isolated, you'll be stuck, and you'll really be a victim of poor planning: Poor planning makes poor judgements.
What should I do if a stranger in another car is aggressive towards me?
In this day and age, you really can't engage in some sort of encounter or dialogue with another driver. It's not sensible or responsible to be screaming back and forth at someone or using hand gestures at them. Road-rage is an unfortunate reality and people can turn to violence over a simple traffic infraction or some other perceived wrong that you did. The safest method is to be careful when you drive, but don't engage someone who is trying to engage you; back off, give them the right of way, reverse direction, make a right hand turn, do something to separate yourself and break that tension.
