Safety Tips for Women of All Ages by Ron Mullins

If you’re a woman, whether you’re in high school, college, in the work force, married with children or have grandkids; this is for you, and for you to share with another woman.

NEVER walk to your car alone in the dark.  Ask someone you trust to escort you.  If out for the evening, coordinate with your friends to park together. As soon as you get to your car, look around the car and in the back seat.  Take note of vans, SUVs with blackout windows and any one sitting in the driver’s seat with the engine running.  (Yes, women do prey on other women.)

Whether you’re leaving the office, the mall or the grocery store; as soon as you get in your car, LOCK THE DOORS AND DRIVE AWAY.  Women have a tendency to sit in the car and attend to things; DON’T, deal with that later.  And don’t sit in your car when you arrive at your destination.  Get out, lock the door and walk towards your destination.

Note: if you are ever held at gun point inside your car, DO NOT DRIVE AWAY (let me repeat this: DO NOT DRIVE AWAY); stomp your foot on the gas pedal and crash the car into something solid.  You will be protected by the airbag, the meat bag with the gun will not.  As soon as you can, jump from the car and run screaming towards people.  Better to have to buy another car than having authorities find your body in a remote location.

ALWAYS take the elevator instead of the stairs; and stand next to the call box for the ride up and down.

In aviation, it’s referred to as “flight following”; communicating our location and destination with a third party.  If you are out without friends; a date, shopping, showing a house, etc.; initiate flight following with someone that knows your schedule and will call if you don’t check in when you should; and will know where you have been and where you are heading.  (Today’s technology has apps that you can load onto your phone to track your location and provide “flight following” to a friend.)

Dating is both exciting and scary; whether you’re newly starting to date or entering the dating scene again, let a friend know where you are going and with whom – and when you expect to be home.

A Couple of Points Just in Case:

The elbow is the strongest point on your body. If you are close enough to use it, jab to the rear or drop down from above.  Also, the tip of a high heel jabbed into the calf, or any shoe scraped along the inside of the shin will impale your attacker long enough to allow you to escape.

If you are ever thrown into the trunk of a car, kick out the back tail lights and stick your arm out the hole and start waving like crazy. The driver won’t see you, but everybody else will. This has saved lives.

If the predator has a gun and you are not under his control, ALWAYS RUN!  Bad guys are generally not good shots; and a moving target is hard to hit.  RUN, and run in a zig-zag pattern!

The most important part of action is planning.  If we are aware that bad things can happen and we take action to be aware and avoid, we can prevent becoming a victim and be able to take action should we end up in a bad situation.