Tips For 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?

Crossing The Street 

Do you cross the street at crossings 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.

Safety awareness

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 tyre problems to cars.

Broken Glass 

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.

Accidents will happen

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!

Unsafe Conditions

An accident can be caused by an unsafe condition. Look at your car. It can be a typical example of an unsafe condition. Bad brakes and unsafe tyres, faulty headlights, loose steering, and, yes, even dirty windscreens and side windows can cause accidents, and they are all unsafe conditions.

Cause of accidents 

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.

Unsafe Conditions

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.

Poor judgment

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 judgment, were you at the wrong place at the wrong time?

Constant awareness

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.

Four categories

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.

Pain and inconvenience 

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. And use common sense in everything you do.

Safety in the home

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 centred in your own home, and not involving the whole community. These are things like fires, local earth sliding, flooding and wind damage.

Consider all aspects

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.

Agencies and organisations 

Most cities and communities have some agencies and organisations 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.

For your convenience, we have prepared  a list of search terms used in order of popularity, to find more pages on this subject:

Searches completed in December 2004 
Count Search Term 
68347 safety 
46169 food safety 
43794 texas department of public safety 
22529 health safety 
17151 national highway traffic safety administration 
14058 safety equipment 
11367 car safety 
10485 fire safety 
10308 safety training 
9740 child safety 
9413 safety glasses 
8596 material safety data sheet 
8283 lab safety 
8058 safety product 
7901 department of public safety 
7523 traffic safety 
7499 depot safety 
7325 safety poster 
6449 auto safety 
6396 national safety council 
6249 safety dance 
6247 auto racing safety equipment 
5874 safety deposit 
5828 occupational health and safety 
5713 workplace safety 
5705 safety security 
5600 home safety 
5566 car safety rating 
5415 seat belt safety 
5346 work safety 
5232 safety first 
5031 industrial safety 
4776 safety sign 
4725 holiday safety 
4591 safety 1st 
4547 insurance institute for highway safety 
4436 boating safety 
4397 safety management 
4358 texas dept of public safety 
4354 safety shoes 
4309 institute for highway safety 
4307 safety consultant 
4285 safety supply 
4194 safety slogan 
4164 safety gates 
4092 lab safety supply 
4016 baby safety 
3910 public safety 
3777 health and safety training 
3730 worker safety 
3690 safety mat 
3676 car seat safety 
3658 consumer product safety commission 
3551 safety topic 
3500 safety kleen 
3471 child safety gates 
3413 christmas safety 
3351 safety pin 
3286 ergonomic safety 
3226 safety vest 
3101 internet safety 
3074 safety tip 
3061 electrical safety 
3046 converse safety shoes 
3031 balance new safety shoes 
3007 realtor safety 
2987 dr martens safety shoes 
2965 converse sport safety shoes 
2798 holiday safety tip 
2783 safety resource 
2611 safety program 
2585 highway safety 
2495 gun safety 
2385 school safety 
2353 vehicle safety rating 
2350 national transportation safety board 
2300 construction safety 
2293 chemical safety 
2285 safety gear 
2285 timberland safety shoes 
2284 driving safety 
2265 safety harbor spa 
2256 public safety equipment 
2252 flight safety 
2232 motorcycle safety 
2222 army safety 
2190 hunter safety course 
2143 public health and safety 
2138 earth quake safety 
2124 winter safety 
2058 tennessee department of safety 
2037 safety video 
2005 arizona department of public safety 
1956 safety mirror 
1945 pool safety cover 
1941 national highway safety 
1941 vehicle safety 
1908 safety jobs 
1814 texas department of safety 
1786 total safety

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