No amount of preparation can replace training. The inevitability of a worsening situation is almost always right around the corner. This can be no truer than with your vehicle and how you operate it under stress and duress.
A year ago, I found myself in a situation that drove this point home and tested every single skill I had learned over the years. I was on a close protection job for a media personality in a really nasty situation. Due to the lack of understanding by the film crew of what tactical driving was, I ultimately ended up in a flee and chase that I had to perform in an area that I had little to no knowledge of.
No short article you read will prepare you like a tactical driving course. If you want to truly learn some solid driving skills beyond what is listed below, find a class.
Roll-Low Profile
If you drive a fully kitted Hummer with a bug-out kit on the roof along with a thousand tactical stickers on the back window so that everyone in town knows how bad-ass you are, and you drive in a similarly aggressive fashion, you’ve lost the ability to drive tactically.
I teach my girls on jaunts to the grocery store what vehicles we pass that most likely have a weapon that can be easily accessed via a broken window in a life or death situation. Don’t be that guy or girl. If you have little stickers of small arms on your back window, I’m laughing at you.
Blend in and be ready; don’t advertise. When things get dicey, the unprepared will look at your heavily kitted ride and come after you for help.
Following Distance
This is safe driving 101. The problem is that we learn to follow safe driving distance to minimize the risk of plowing into someone’s backside, but most never apply that to stopping in traffic. Always give yourself a car-length when stopped so that you can clear a turn from the vehicle in front of you, left or right, to keep from being pinned in.
At that, stay out of center lanes or in lanes where you can’t get over to hop a median or shoulder to get out of the kill zone. Boxing a vehicle in is the first step to ambushing a vehicle and its occupants. Ensure you have an escape route at all times.
Learn to Use a Map
Sounds funny, but in the current era of smartphones, it is surprising the number of people that don’t know how to use a map to navigate. By no means should you discount electronics, but once the batteries die or there is a network issue, learning map-reading skills on the side of the road will prove to be difficult and make you very vulnerable.
A stand-alone GPS or smartphone will almost always route you via the quickest way, which is precisely what everyone else’s GPS is doing. I don’t want to be in the mix, but rather making my own way.
Whenever I take a trip, I pick up a map that will cover the entire area I’m traveling so that I have a backup. Even if I am using my smartphone to navigate, before leaving, I follow the map to learn of any major landmarks in the direction of my travel that will help me with an egress route.
Pick up a map on your next trip and use it to navigate your way. You will be surprised at how quickly you become familiar with driving without a GPS.
Keep Moving
When things are at their worst, stationary folks tend to be the first victims. If you get into a traffic jam during an “event” that could turn hostile, keeping your momentum off the “x” or out of the danger area is the best practice.
A couple months ago, I was a passenger in a vehicle approaching a lone police officer in northern Nigeria who was waving us down for a shakedown. My driver just kept moving and even sped up to put some distance between us and the checkpoint. Thankfully, the officer wasn’t in the mood for a chase, especially one where he probably had no probable cause.
Two days later, with a different driver, we stopped for a single officer at a checkpoint, and I nearly lost my sunglasses and phone in the ensuing shakedown and bribe on my part.
Practice Your Pit Stops
A breakdown will be your worst-case scenario in a situation where you are fleeing an area by automobile. Being able to change a flat in just a few minutes or replace a drive belt on the side of the road in minutes can be a lifesaver.
These are easy tasks that can be easily practiced anywhere. If you are not comfortable with some basic mechanic skills such as this, you can bet at the worst possible moment, you’ll have a breakdown and be exposed needlessly to an event you are fleeing from.
In Closing
This is by no means a course in tactical driving, but rather a taste. Do some research, take a class if you can, but by all means, practice what you learn. A properly prepared vehicle is useless without a properly prepared driver.
This article was originally published in Survival Dispatch Insider magazine Volume 3 Issue 11.
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