What are the Safety Precautions to Take When Driving?

Government officials, journalists and other people who are at high risk of being attacked should pay particular attention to the precautions they should take regarding their vehicles. Because the moment you are most vulnerable to attack is when you are in your vehicle. For this reason, many people are attacked either by an explosive device planted in their vehicle or by being shot at while driving.

It takes time for attackers to plant explosives in your vehicle, no matter how fast they act. For this reason, attackers prefer to plant explosives when you park your vehicle for a long time or take it to a mechanic. To prevent this, have your vehicle serviced and repaired by authorized services or mechanics you know and trust.

The main thing you should pay attention to in order to prevent explosives being planted in your vehicle while it is parked is to choose the place where you park your vehicle well. If you have a parking garage at your home or workplace, park your vehicle there when not in use. It is important that strangers cannot enter the parking garage. For this reason, your garage should have a strong and reliable door. It should also have a combination lock and be monitored 24 hours a day with a camera inside and outside the garage. 

If you live in an apartment rather than a detached house, living in an apartment with a garage is a factor that increases your security. If there is such a garage, make sure that the building management takes measures to prevent non-residents from parking their vehicles there or entering on foot. It is also important for security that such garages have cameras.

If your home or workplace does not have a garage, do not park your car far away from your home or workplace. At home, it is helpful to park where you can see it from your living room or bedroom window; at work, it is helpful to park where the security guards at the gate, if any, or you can see it from your workplace. 

In any case, do not park in places that are not illuminated at night. Also, day or night, do not park near construction sites, road works, or in front of places such as repair shops or tire shops. Because in such places, no one will be suspicious of the activities of someone trying to plant explosives in your vehicle or someone who wants to harm it. 

Dust or soft soil on the ground where you park your vehicle will help you. This is because traces of people approaching your vehicle while it is parked remain on the ground. Dust on your vehicle also helps to leave traces where you can identify someone who has touched the vehicle. So don't have your car washed all the time and don't sweep the floor of the parking lot completely. 

When you close your car doors, tuck a small piece of paper or string in the same color as your car between the doors, and when you get in the car and see that the paper or string is gone, you will know that someone has entered your car. 

Whether you park your car for a certain period of time during the day or overnight, never open the doors without checking the entire vehicle. First, check your car for any signs of someone approaching or entering the vehicle on and around it.

Next, check your vehicle for anything unusual (dangling wires, cut wires, pieces of dust, pieces of duct tape or plastic wrap, batteries, plastic syringes, etc.). If your vehicle has a cover, first check it externally by eye and by hand. Do not open the cover if it is different from the one you have covered or if any part of the cover has peeled off. Even if there is nothing suspicious, remove the cover slowly and carefully.

Attackers who plant explosives in a vehicle usually use four types of ignition system. These are pressure release detonators, pressure sensitive detonators, electric detonators and motion sensitive detonators. To get rid of pressure release detonators, do not remove any object you see next to, under, above or inside your car that you did not put there. 

A pressure-sensitive detonator is activated when any pressure is applied to it. As a precaution against this detonator, do not sit in the driver's seat without checking for any signs. Do not place anything that weighs a certain amount, such as a purse or bag, on the seats without checking it thoroughly.

An electric detonator, as it is called, works with an electric source and usually uses the battery of your vehicle as an electric source by closing the circuit when you turn the ignition key (such explosives are simulated in car explosions you see in movies). Therefore, before turning the ignition, look down and check the bottom of the ignition for any interference or dangling wires. Also, check if there are any non-vehicle cables or batteries anywhere in your vehicle.

Electric detonators are also used in motion-sensitive ignition devices. Unlike a normal electric detonator, a plastic tube is usually mounted somewhere in the circuit. At one end of this tube, cable ends that do not touch each other are placed and some mercury is placed in the other part. The tube is glued to any part of the vehicle at an angle so that the mercury does not touch the wires. 

Since the circuit is normally open, there is no explosion when the ignition is turned on, even if the energy is taken from the vehicle's battery. However, when you move, especially when you brake suddenly, the mercury on the low side of the tube will flow forward and touch the wires, completing the circuit. Therefore, when checking your vehicle, look for a plastic tube.

Start checking the vehicle by first checking the tires. Because motion-sensitive detonators can also be mounted on tires. You can also take precautions against accidents by checking the tire air. Then look at the gaps on the tires and the fenders. Bend down as far as possible and look underneath the vehicle. 

Pay particular attention to the exhaust area. After completing the external check of the vehicle, open and check the trunk. Then open the door carefully and look at the interior of the vehicle. Pay particular attention to the seat bottoms and backs. Open the engine hood and check for any foreign objects in the engine compartment. 

If you pay attention to your vehicle in this way, you will take a great deal of precaution against a bomb. It is not just cables, plastic tubes or duct tape that you should look for. Anything that should not be there, anything that does not look normal is a sign of a threat. 

You have parked your car in a safe place, you have done the checks I mentioned above and you are going to set off. Remember that from that moment on you will face new and different threats. These threats are explosives that may be placed somewhere on your way and armed attacks that you may encounter during your journey. We will now talk about the precautions you should take against them.

If you are going on a long journey, the first thing you need to do is to let the people who can help you or come to your aid know where and when you are going. These should be people you trust one hundred percent. 

Nowadays, nobody goes anywhere without a phone, but it is still worth mentioning: Always take your phone with you on a trip. Also, it is safer not to go on long journeys alone. If possible, travel with 1-2 people you trust.

If you have done these things, now you need to pay attention to the things you need to pay attention to after you start driving your car. Always lock the doors after getting into your car and never open them during the journey except for breaks. If you pause for any reason, someone can quickly open the doors and get in.

Do not open your windows during the journey. Someone could attack you through open windows with cutting or piercing weapons or throw flammable material, grenades or other explosives into your vehicle. If you need to talk to someone outside or ventilate the interior of your vehicle, do not open the windows more than 5 cm.

Do not use narrow and deserted roads when traveling. As far as possible, avoid roads with heavy traffic where you have to stop. When traveling, keep at least two car lengths away from the car in front. Also watch out for vehicles coming too close behind you. 

If possible, adjust your speed so that you do not stop at red lights. If you have to stop at a red light, do not get too close to the car in front of you. Leave a space where you can escape in case of an attack. Always check behind you in the mirrors while traveling and when you have to stop for any reason. 

If you keep seeing the same vehicles in front of you or behind you while traveling and at stops, you may be being followed. Accelerate suddenly or reduce your speed slowly. If the vehicle behind you speeds up when you speed up or slows down when you slow down, there is a good chance you are being followed. If you realize you are being followed, keep your distance from the vehicle behind you and do not let them know that you realize you are being followed. Do not stop until you are in a safe place.

Be suspicious of traps placed in unexpected places on the road. Beware of people, even in police uniform, who try to stop you in unrelated places. Do not stop immediately, even if for any reason your tire is low on air or has a flat tire. If you can, drive to a safe place.

Do not stop next to garbage bins and do not stand on the iron railings for draining water from the road. If possible, also avoid standing on culverts and small bridges. These are good places to plant explosives and detonate them by remote control. If possible, have a jammer installed in your vehicle. This is the best precaution against remote controlled explosives.

Never pick up strangers hitchhiking on the road. Unfortunately, goodwill is not a healthy thing today. Don't pick up strangers on the road, even if you are sure that they are not trying to attack you on purpose. These could be random thieves, people with psychological problems, or addicts who may act aggressively because of drugs, etc.

Small criminal gangs that rob vehicles on the road may use unthinkable methods to get you to stop. For this reason, do not stop and approach vehicles that have crashed, especially on deserted roads. This is one of the most common methods used by robbers. It can also be used by those who are preparing a planned attack on you.

The same applies to people fighting on the road or lying on the road pretending to be injured. When you see people fighting on the road or lying on the ground in a deserted area on the road, do not stop. Do not approach or get involved in fights. Only report the accident, fight or person lying on the ground to the relevant units by phone. 

Do not be fooled by the fact that the people hitchhiking on the road, lying on the ground, etc. are young and clean-faced children or old people. Years ago in Ankara, there was talk of a gang that took taxi drivers and hitchhikers to the secluded areas of Gölbaşı, killed and buried them, and drove around in their cars until the gasoline ran out and then abandoned them.

Someone I met at the time told me that on the way from Eskişehir road to Kızılay (if I remember correctly), somewhere between the Hacettepe intersection and METU, two young people, a boy and a girl, were hitchhiking and he stopped and picked them up, thinking they were university students.

The children sat in the back seat. They were clean-faced and innocent looking children. But a few minutes after they got into the car, the boy pulled a knife and held it to the driver's throat. He asked him to turn off the Konya road and drive in the direction of Gölbaşı. The driver did exactly as he was told. When they entered a dark field in Gölbaşı, he stopped the vehicle at the boy's request.

The driver was very calm and compliant. He told the boy that they could take the money in his wallet and that there was some money in the car that he had kept for hard times and that they could take it too. Hearing the promise of more money, the boy loosened the knife and asked where the money was. The driver said that there was some in the trunk and some hidden somewhere under the car.

So the boy decided to slowly get the driver out of the car without taking the knife from his neck. The man did as he was told. But the man had a pistol in the storage compartment in the car door. As he opened the door and got out, he took the pistol unnoticed, and in the few seconds the boy had to pull the knife to get out, he cocked the gun and pointed it at the boy.

The boy threw the knife when he saw the gun. The driver put them on the ground. He tied the hands and feet of the girl and the boy with the parachute rope in the trunk and neutralized them. Then he threw them in the trunk and took them to the police. It turned out that this clean-faced and innocent-looking girl and boy were the serial killers responsible for the murders of taxi drivers. If I remember correctly, they were both university students.

I didn't take his story seriously, thinking, "The guy is full of shit..." But a day or two later, when I read in the newspapers that the murder suspects had been caught, I realized that he was telling the truth. After that, I didn't let anyone I didn't know into my car. I think you should do the same. Don't be fooled by appearances, don't be defeated by the softness of your heart.

In our previous article titled "Survival Measures for Mafia Fathers", we said that if you can get an armored car with bulletproof windows and explosive-proof windows, this will provide you with partial protection. If you cannot get such a vehicle, it would be useful to get a bulletproof composite vest, a new technology jacket and trousers that protect against piercing and cutting tools.

In addition, you may also find it useful to have bulletproof equipment that looks like a bonded handbag that opens with the push of a button and protects you against firearms. If these are not available, keep a sufficiently thick and large encyclopedia or book in your car. These can stop the bullets of many weapons or at least reduce their lethality. If this is not possible, obtain bonded handbags and fill them with books. These can also be used as shields to protect your vital organs in case you are shot at. 

These measures can be varied or increased depending on the threat, your circumstances and where you live. This is for you to decide. Do not be satisfied with these measures as threats may change over time. Constantly think of new measures and improve existing measures according to the circumstances of the time.

Remember, however, that there is one precaution that you must pay attention to in all circumstances and never give up. This is to avoid routine behavior and predictability. If possible, use different means of transportation all the time. Never take the same road twice in a row. Take a different route every day. Never leave home or work at the same time twice. Do not get in your car at the same time. 

Sometimes even consider driving to work, blending in with other employees and taking a shuttle or taxi home. Someone who is thinking of attacking you has to plan the attack. To plan it, he/she needs to know your routine. If you do not have a routine or if it is unpredictable, it will be very difficult to plan an attack on you.