Protect Yourself: What to Do If You Fear Attack in Your Car

As a very young news reporter, I often had to drive along lonely highways very late at night as I traveled between far flung communities and my home. Normally, I enjoyed these trips immensely. I still enjoyed it right up until the first time someone tried to hurt me. Having survived a few of these incidents now, I am here to tell you what you can do to protect yourself and what to do if you fear attack in your vehicle.

First, listen to what all the experts tell you: your car, truck, or SUV is not worth your life. If someone tries to take your vehicle from you in a carjacking, especially when the criminal does it at knife or gunpoint, let the thief take it while you get away. Unless you are very fortunate, you are much more apt to be injured in trying to fight to keep your vehicle than if you get the heck out of there.

You also face the issue of how a weapon you may try to use can be turned against you. Stun devices, guns, and knives have been pulled out of the trembling hands of a victim and used to hurt that person who acquired them for protection. People who commit crimes regularly may be accustomed to street fighting, but average people usually are not. Because of this, we don't usually possess the skills necessary to effectively defend ourselves in a physical, perhaps even mortal battle with a perpetrator.

Along these same lines, never attempt some fancy move you saw in a movie or in last week's "Law and Order" episode. You could get hurt as easily as the perpetrator of the crime. Understand that while the law always allows for self defense, what you perceive as a life or death situation has to rise to what a reasonable person acting in a reasonable state of mind would do under similar circumstances. What may leave you in a panic might now strike law enforcement or the judicial system quite the same way.