Back when I was growing up all those decades ago, a big treat every Saturday morning was watching shows like the Lone Ranger and other thrilling adventures. Maybe it was Rocky and Bullwinkle where a young maiden was tied to a railroad track by an evil villain wearing all black. She was rescued by a man who rode up on a white horse and untied her before the train came along. Do you remember such TV shows?
That’s an escape maneuver that might work on a TV show, commercial or in a movie but not in real life. When you are faced with an emergency, what are you supposed to do?
Emergencies by definition do not happen that often. They are the exception rather than the rule. But when they do happen, how you deal with them may end up saving your life so you should know some escape maneuvers.
Carjacking is something that you read and hear about frequently and certainly qualifies as an emergency.
Most assaults on city streets, believe it or not, are made by people who are not armed. Unfortunately, most carjackers are usually armed. What would you do with an armed carjacker who forced his way into your car and asked you to drive to a specific location with a gun at your head?
Here are a couple of emergency escape maneuvers that will be helpful. We hope you never have to use them.
The first thing you do is to make sure your seatbelt is fastened and then do one of two things: attempt to drive to the closest police station; or deliberately crash your car into an area that has high visibility. You will be prepared for it mentally and an airbag will save you. Not so with the carjacker. Your blaring car horn can certainly draw attention to your situation and may be of considerable assistance.
How did he get into your car in the first place? We have always recommended that women, especially, keep their doors locked and their windows rolled up. Many women get into their cars and start doing things other than locking their car doors and rolling up their windows. If you don’t think the carjackers realize this, you need to rethink that.
According to this definition of carjacking it is “the criminal taking of a motor vehicle from its driver by force, violence, or intimidation.”
The U.S. State Department says that “CARJACKING has become one of the most prevalent crimes in many parts of the world. Most carjackings occur for the sole purpose of taking the car; it is a crime without a political agenda and does not specifically target Americans.”
In another situation, if you are approached by a stranger on the street and he threatens to rob you at gunpoint or with a knife, what would you do? One school of thought says that you should throw your wallet in one direction and run like crazy in the other while yelling at the top of your lungs. The chances of him shooting at you are slim and if he does shoot, the chances of him hitting you are even slimmer especially if you run in an evasive fashion.
If you carry a self-defense product with you wherever you go like this Mean Green Fox Labs, your chances of surviving in an emergency are much greater. We hope you never have to use these emergency escape maneuver techniques but at least you know them.
I’m not suggesting that you stay awake at night thinking about this, but reading about some tips on how to handle unusual emergencies should be enough to burn them in your memory forever.