Knives Save Lives

From Blade magazine's "Blog of Steel":  Knives Save Lives, Period.

It's a nice write-up by EMT and former New Hampshire state representative, Jenn Coffey, regarding the usefulness of knives in emergency situations.  Coffey is also advocating for automobile dealerships to help their customers and themselves by including something like a CRKT Exitool with a dealer logo in the vehicles they sell.

I had never paid attention to the Exitool because I always have a blade or two on me, not mention a flashlight of some kind.  I can see, though, where it would be something I could attach to a seat belt strap for use by my wife, daughter or granddaughter in the cars they usually drive. 

I was driving home one night many years ago as it began to snow.  I was hurrying a little trying to beat the storm, which was supposed to include significant accumulation, but the temperature was starting to drop and ice was already forming on parts of the road surface.  I discovered that when the little 2WD Ford Ranger I was driving broke loose and went into a series of spins.  I went airborne over the edge of a fairly high embankment.  (I don't know why they say "airborne".  The air ain't bearin' nothin'; it's all gravity and forward momentum.)  Anyway, I crashed pretty impressively and rolled, coming to rest upside down, hanging from the harness.  The passenger side was mashed up, but my side was not too bad.  All I had to do was press the button on my seat belt, whereupon I dropped to the roof, opened the door and got out. 

Lessons from that?  I always assume that if it's anywhere near freezing, the road is slick.  I no longer buy rear-wheel-drive only pickups.  I always buckle my seat belt.  And I always try to have something at hand that would help me find and fight my way out of a vehicle if I should crash.