Your Personal Safety

The world we live in today is much safer than the one known by

your parents and grandparents.  Even considering the constant

bombardment of news to the contrary, the government and industry

have taken some major steps to protect us all.  In almost

everything we do, we are surrounded by protection based on

safety experience from the past.

You'll be safer - - but only if you have a strong feeling for

safety.  Why?  Because many of the safety factors developed to

protect you function only if you do something about them.  Do

you buckle your seat belt every time you get in the car?  Do

you cross the street at crosswalks instead of jaywalking?  Do

you walk or jog on the left side of the road so that you are

facing oncoming traffic?  These are just a few of the things

that you know and can do something about.

We all must acknowledge the fact that we bear some of the

responsibility for making our environment safe and safety is

thinking about other people, too.  Because in this safety

awareness, we can take steps to help others.  For instance,

a jagged piece of metal and certain types of broken bottles

on the street can cause tire problems to cars.  Broken glass

on the beach might also send someone to the hospital for

stitches.  When you take time to clean up things such as

broken bottles, etc., you're taking a big step toward

protecting others.

An accident is something that happens to you and to others. 

It's easy to think that these accidents just happen.  Buy

they don't.  They're not just bad luck or bad breaks that

come to you out of nowhere.  An accident is never supposed

to happen.  It isn't planned and it isn't deliberate. 

Accidents are caused!

An accident can be caused by an unsafe condition.  Look at

your automobile.  It can be a typical example of an unsafe

condition.  Bad brakes and unsafe tires, faulty headlights,

loose steering, and, yes, even dirty windshields and side

windows can cause accidents, and they are all unsafe

conditions.  And along this same line, we need to consider

unsafe acts as also contributing to the cause of accidents. 

These are not "conditions."  They are what you, or someone

else, does or doesn't do.  A good example is jaywalking. 

You know it's dangerous to walk out between parked cars to

cross the street, but it's easier than walking down to the

next corner.

Both unsafe conditions and unsafe actions exist, and either

one can cause accidents.  But you can put the two together,

as well.  That car with the poor brakes, and all the other

unsafe conditions, isn't unsafe at all  until someone starts

to use it.  It's the act of using that causes the accident. 

Oh sure, the car was at fault, but the driver of that car was

the ultimate cause of the accident.

You will find many unsafe conditions in your daily life, but

most of them become truly unsafe based on your own actions

related to them.  What causes you to act in an unsafe way? 

Is it carelessness?  Poor judgement, were you at the wrong

place at the wrong time?

There's never a total absence of risks in our lives.  Risks

are voluntary actions and can be managed.  Emergencies can

be met and handled, but it takes know-how and constant awareness. 

What you can't prevent, you can usually compensate for or

protect against.

Safety experts classify accidents in four broad categories: 

Motor vehicle, work and job related, home, and public.  The

public category excludes motor vehicle and work accidents in

public places.  It covers sports and recreation (swimming,

hunting, etc.), air, water, or land transportation excluding

motor vehicle and public building accidents.

On the average, there are 10 accidental deaths and about

1,000 disabling injuries every hour during the year.  About

one-half of the deaths occur in motor vehicle accidents while

about one-third of the injuries occur in and around the home.

It's not hard to imagine adding yourself to the accident

statistics.  Any day of the week, you'll be swamped with

stories in the newspapers and on television about the many

tragic accidents going on all over the country and it seems to

be getting worse all the time.  And in every case the victim

was somebody who did not plan or expect that they would be hurt

or killed.

In a matter of seconds, everything you were ever going to do

and be can be snuffed out.  At the least, you suffer pain and

inconvenience from an accident.  At worst, an accident kills or

damages you for life.

Safety saves you, but it does more than that.  Mix each safety

ingredient with all of your day to day activities.  An use

common sense in everything you do.

Safety in your home is a combination of mind and matter.  You

mind must be constantly aware of the home safety dangers.  The

matter is the safety condition of your home.

The safety condition of your home isn't a case of rebuilding

things to make it safe.  It's more the disposal of dangerous

items, and a case of good housekeeping.  A safe home has a place

for everything, and that along with the right mental attitude

about keeping those things in place is just good housekeeping.

The home is the most frequent place for injury accidents to

occur, and it is second only to motor vehicle accidents for

the number of deaths in the country today.  Family members are

busier than ever rushing in and out so it's easy to understand

how careless mistakes are often made.

When you read the daily newspaper or watch newscasts on TV,

you'll see that home accidents can be classified in two major

ways.  There are things that can totally disrupt your entire

community - - such as earthquakes, tornadoes, storms and floods.

And then there are those kinds of accidents that are centered

in your own home, and not involving the whole community.  These

are things like fires, local earth sliding, flooding and wind

damage.

You will need to consider both types when thinking about safety

at home.  For the community - wide disasters, you may or may not

receive any outside help for a considerable period of time, and

you must be prepared to survive on your own home resources.  With

the second type, your home may be destroyed, but some help should

be there from the outside, early in the experience.  Most cities

and communities have some agencies and organizations in place to

assist the public in times of severe emergencies.

It is wise for everyone to do a home safety check on a regular

basis and get the family members involved.  Naturally, every

family needs to develop its own plan because every house and every

family is different.   What you can't prevent, you can usually

compensate for or protect against.