2nd Edition

Survival Driving Staying Alive on the World’s Most Dangerous Roads

By Robert H. Deatherage, Jr. Copyright 2022
    166 Pages 77 B/W Illustrations
    by CRC Press

    166 Pages 77 B/W Illustrations
    by CRC Press

    Survival Driving: Staying Alive on the World’s Most Dangerous Roads, Second Edition was written to inform and protect: to keep people alive by making them more situationally aware.

    Any person is a potential target, either from a criminal or a terrorist threat, depending on your profession and the type of environment you live and work in. Driving is the most important part of a person’s security program, whether the person is traveling alone or the executive being moved by his or her security detail. The book is written in plain, easy to understand language providing straight-forward guidance that outlines tools to ensure security whenever in transit in a vehicle. This includes making themselves a hard target in order to avoid attack.

    While most terrorist or criminal attacks are difficult to predict, the majority of attacks take place when a person is in transit. By providing tools such as rout analysis, identifying choke points, learning where safe havens are located along a route, individuals are able to predict the places that are most vulnerable, and take steps to ensure safety. VIPs, executives, those working in—or traveling to—volatile regions of the world, and those hired to protect such individuals will equally learn how to detect surveillance when it is targeted against them, when they are the potential target. Failing this, the book also provides the tools a person needs to break contact and escape when an attack against them while moving in their vehicle occurs.

    The book covers basic and advanced driving skills and instructs on how to best understand the transport vehicle and its capabilities.

    Key Features:

    • Instructs readers on how to recognize and anticipate potential attack sites during movement
    • Illustrates how to properly maintain a vehicle at peak performance in different environments so it will work as required when needed
    • Describes vehicle dynamics and, specifically, how a vehicle can be used as a tool to protect, and aid escape, when under attack
    • Outlines the ways individuals can become more situationally aware in their movements
    • Maps out key security driving elements such as steering, braking, vehicle dynamics, and evasive maneuvers to escape amidst a threat

    By raising situational awareness, increasing knowledge of the attack cycle, and outlining the nature of threats, Survival Driving can transform any reader from a soft target to an informed hard target who threat actors will want to avoid.

    Contents

    Acknowledgments vii

    About the Author ix

    Introduction xi

    Chapter 1 Who Is a Target?

    Chapter 2 The Weakest Link

    Chapter 3 Route Analysis

    Chapter 4 How to Overcome Induced Panic and "Fight or Flight"

    Chapter 5 Awareness

    Chapter 6 Attack Recognition

    Chapter 7 Surveillance Detection

    Chapter 8 Your Vehicle

    Chapter 9 Issues with Smart Vehicles

    Chapter 10 Vehicle Occupant Responsibilities

    Chapter 11 Driving Basics

    Chapter 12 Vehicle Dynamics

    Chapter 13 Vehicle Evasion Maneuvers

    Chapter 14 Attack Scenarios

    Chapter 15 Motorcade Operations

    Chapter 16 Vehicle Bomb Searches

    Chapter 17 Case Studies of Actual Vehicle Attacks

    Index 151

    Biography

    Robert H. Deatherage Jr. (Bob) spent over 22 years in the US Military, serving in both the US

    Marine Corps and US Army Special Forces, and working in several different positions and groups.

    He retired as the Non-commissioned Officer in Charge of the Antiterrorism Training Detachment,

    D company 2nd Battalion 1st Special Warfare Training Group. Since retirement, he has worked as

    a Security Manager for international construction companies in Iraq, Israel, the West Bank, and

    Gaza. He has also worked as a DOD contractor with assignment to the DEA in Afghanistan, and

    as a Corporate Security Tactics Manager in the commercial Nuclear Industry, overseeing security

    at multiple commercial nuclear power plants. He currently works as a consultant in the security

    industry and still conducts training seminars for the Military, including Special Operations units,

    Civilian Law Enforcement organizations throughout the United States on a wide variety of subjects

    in Antiterrorism, Defensive Driving, Security, and PSD operations. Bob has a Master’s in

    Business and Organizational Security Management.