Everyday safety
A first safety kit for moving out.
A new city has no map in your head yet: you do not know which streets are busy at midnight, which bus stop is lit, or who to call. That knowledge builds over months. These are the parts you can set up in an afternoon.
Learn one good route, not the whole city
You do not need to know the area. You need one reliable way home from the two places you will actually go back from: your university or college campus, and the street where everyone goes out.
Walk both once in daylight, then once late. Note what is open, where the lights stop, and where the shortcut looks tempting. That is the route you take when you are too tired to think.
Set up the people before you need them
Emergency contacts are the thing everyone leaves for later. It takes four minutes: two or three people in your phone, at least one nearby, at least one usually awake.
Add the local emergency number as well. In the European Union it is 112 everywhere, which is worth knowing before the night you need it, in a country whose language you are still learning.
- Two or three emergency contacts, one of them local
- 112 saved and recognised, wherever you are in the EU
- A flatmate who knows your usual hours
Sort the front door
Arriving home is a slow, predictable moment, and predictable is the part worth changing. Keys in hand a street early turns thirty seconds on a doorstep into three.
Inside, the basics are dull and effective: know where the light switch is before you need it, check the door actually locks behind you, and do not prop the building door for a delivery you are not expecting.
Carry one thing, and carry it every day
A safety kit that lives in a drawer is decoration. Whatever you pick has to be small enough to sit on your keys and boring enough that you stop noticing it.
A personal alarm meets both tests. One pull sets off a siren loud enough to turn heads, and if it also alerts your contacts with your position, the noise reaches people who are not on that street.
Any questions?
What should a student carry for safety?
Something small enough to live on a keyring and used often enough to become invisible. A personal alarm qualifies; anything you have to remember to pack usually does not.
What is the emergency number in Europe?
112 works in every European Union country, from any phone, and connects you to police, ambulance and fire services. It works even with no credit on the line.
Is a personal alarm a good gift for a student?
It is one of the few safety gifts people actually keep, because it attaches to keys they already carry and needs no subscription, no account and no lessons.
How do students get home safely from a night out?
Plan the way back before the night starts: one reliable route from the street where everyone goes out, walked once in daylight and once late. Keep enough to pay for a ride you had not planned, let a flatmate know your rough hours, and have your keys in hand a street before the door.
What should I do if I think my drink has been spiked?
Tell someone you trust straight away, ask them to stay with you and get to a safe place; at a venue, let a member of staff or security know. If you feel seriously unwell or are injured, call 112 or 999 or go to an emergency department, and if you feel well enough to go home, have someone you trust go with you. Spiking is a crime and can be reported at your local Garda station, but you can get support without reporting it.
