Introduction
Each year, about 43,000 people die in car accidents. Another three million are injured in the “safety” of their own homes, and 27,000 die in home accidents. Add to that the number of fires, burglaries, and other misfortunes that can disrupt daily life, and the picture gets pretty grim.
While a certain amount of misfortune is simply a matter of bad luck, carelessness or oversight is responsible for many accidental injuries. Conversely, proper safety precautions can go a long way to prevent unnecessary injury.
Mark Twain once said, “It’s better to be careful a hundred times than to get killed once.” This chapter may not provide a hundred ways to be careful, but it comes pretty close. Most of the tips take only minutes to put into practice, but they can prevent heartbreaking property loss, spare you months of pain, or perhaps even save your life.
