Whenever you are talking about your own safety the first thing discussed is situational awareness. The bottom line here, is that the majority of bad situations can be avoided in the first place. Whether that is merely avoiding an area, or noticing the person / equipment / car that is out of place for a region that you frequent and taking the appropriate action.
A great story about this over kitlear here. Go give it a read along with the links there. A couple of major (simple) things to point out: Awareness and observation, the use of “command voice”. Two simple very effective techniques that can help to stop a situation from turning into a really bad day.