# Can you lock yourself into your car?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-lock-yourself-into-your-car/801816
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [November 16, 2017, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-lock-yourself-into-your-car/801816 "2017-11-16T23:41:55Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)
#### Post date: [November 16, 2017, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-lock-yourself-into-your-car/801816/1 "2017-11-16T23:41:55Z")
By which I mean, not “can a person in general lock themselves into a car”, but - “can YOU lock yourself into a car you currently drive - so that you can’t get out”?
Inspired by [this](https://www.thechronicle.com.au/news/child-critically-injured-after-being-trapped-in-ho/3264277/) local story about a kid hiding from his mum in their car, and being trapped.
Normally I would think an eight-year-old could simply pop the lock and get out of the car when it got too hot. But I do recall a nasty story from a few years back when a ten-year-old was similarly trapped (and died) and it was said at the time that the model of car in question simply couldn’t be opened from the inside when it was locked.
So I’m wondering … is this a thing? Are there cars on the market that you actually _can’t_ get out of once the driver locks it and leaves? Or is this just a case of a kid using kid-logic and not getting out because he’s “not supposed to” - even when it gets hot enough to leave him unconscious?
---
### Author:  [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)
#### Post date: [November 16, 2017, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-lock-yourself-into-your-car/801816/2 "2017-11-16T23:44:57Z")
My car (Kia Soul) automatically unlocks the front door when you pull the latch. I think there might be child-imprisonment features available for the rear doors, but none of them effect the driver’s door so at worst you’d just have to climb over the seat.
---
### Author:  [@Thylacine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thylacine)
#### Post date: [November 16, 2017, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-lock-yourself-into-your-car/801816/3 "2017-11-16T23:51:55Z")
I assumed childlocks were on in the back and poor kid didn’t know front doors would open. Horrible for all involved.
---
### Author:  [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2017, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-lock-yourself-into-your-car/801816/4 "2017-11-17T00:07:09Z")
If it could happen it would happen to me. I have locked myself out of cars, closets, and the house, many times. Just last week I was locked in my laundry room. (I know, who the the hell puts a backwards lock on a laundry room? My contractor didnt like me much). I have never been locked in a car though. So I say no, unless you are hindered by disability or are a young one. Trunks have those emergency unlocker-thingy-s now too. So no, probably can’t happen.
---
### Author:  [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2017, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-lock-yourself-into-your-car/801816/5 "2017-11-17T00:11:04Z")
there was a case where a guy died after being locked inside his Corvette which has electrically-actuated door releases. but that was because he wasn’t aware there was a manual, mechanical emergency release on the driver’s door.
> **[Texas man, dog, die inside Corvette when doors and windows won’t open ](https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/texas-man-72-dies-trapped-corvette-dream-car-article-1.2253934)**
>
> A 72-year-old Texas man perished inside his dream Corvette when its lock system malfunctioned and he was trapped inside with his dog, Leia.
---
### Author:  [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2017, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-lock-yourself-into-your-car/801816/6 "2017-11-17T00:12:42Z")
> [@Thylacine](#):
>
> I assumed childlocks were on in the back and poor kid didn’t know front doors would open. Horrible for all involved.
Actually, that’s a possibility I hadn’t considered. Yeah, a child could easily try to get out of his _own_ door, fail, and not realise that the drivers’ door was operating under different rules.
ETA: wow, but **jz78817** ’s story sounds bad - and rather like I was originally thinking
---
### Author:  [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2017, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-lock-yourself-into-your-car/801816/7 "2017-11-17T00:55:06Z")
Oh that corvette story is just horrible!
---
### Author:  [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2017, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-lock-yourself-into-your-car/801816/8 "2017-11-17T01:11:46Z")
Honestly I hate to sound harsh but those Corvette owners are pretty dumb I looked up the pictures and while the handle to manually to open the door isn’t exactly prominent I’d think you would see that handle just about every time you jumped in the car. I don’t think it would take that much searching around to find it.
---
### Author:  [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2017, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-lock-yourself-into-your-car/801816/9 "2017-11-17T02:05:43Z")
In my new car the emergency door release is right next to the in-car gas tank cap release located at the foot of the door so I see it every-time I have to get gas.
According to [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLDqmGQU6L0), Corvettes are similar so it seems like something you’d figure out eventually go get out.
---
### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2017, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-lock-yourself-into-your-car/801816/10 "2017-11-17T02:41:04Z")
I’ve locked myself in my car, and still don’t know if there’s a mechanical override.
Still don’t really know what _happened_; the ‘driver’ door locked while I was inside, and the door wouldn’t open, and pushing the ‘lock/unlock’ button on the door did nothing. So I put the key back in the ignition and started it back up, and – the doors unlocked, and that was the beginning and the end of the whole thing.
If I’d been a little kid with no key for the ignition, I don’t know how that story goes.
---
### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2017, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-lock-yourself-into-your-car/801816/11 "2017-11-17T03:48:26Z")
> [@pool](#):
>
> Honestly I hate to sound harsh but those Corvette owners are pretty dumb I looked up the pictures and while the handle to manually to open the door isn’t exactly prominent I’d think you would see that handle just about every time you jumped in the car. I don’t think it would take that much searching around to find it.
If it’s what I’m looking at, at the base of the seat to the left, I think there’s a good chance I would never have realized it was there, especially if I didn’t know there was such a thing (and, until this thread, I didn’t.) God knows in a rental car I’ve driven myself crazy looking for the fuel latch that was hidden there, and that was looking fir something I knew must exist somewhere in the car.
---
### Author:  [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2017, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-lock-yourself-into-your-car/801816/12 "2017-11-17T04:04:01Z")
I could if I engage the child proof locks on the rear doors. But I don’t have them engaged. My locks don’t depend on power to unlock them. I can push a button on the door and they’ll unlock, even with a dead battery.
---
### Author:  [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2017, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-lock-yourself-into-your-car/801816/13 "2017-11-17T05:01:48Z")
I drove a Hyundai Santa Fe a couple years ago, it had so many bells and whistles, many times I pulled the wrong switch or pushed the wrong thing. I am slightly dyslexic so too many things confuse me like that. My Escape is alot less busy, so I have fewer probs. If I can keep it between the ditches and the deer population doesn’t kill me, I should be alright. But, damn, getting locked in your own car, I never woulda believed it could happen!
---
### Author:  [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2017, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-lock-yourself-into-your-car/801816/14 "2017-11-17T05:23:02Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#):
>
> I drove a Hyundai Santa Fe a couple years ago, it had so many bells and whistles, many times I pulled the wrong switch or pushed the wrong thing. I am slightly dyslexic so too many things confuse me like that. My Escape is alot less busy, so I have fewer probs. If I can keep it between the ditches and the deer population doesn’t kill me, I should be alright. But, damn, getting locked in your own car, I never woulda believed it could happen!
Along the lines of people clicking their key fob to unlock their house doors I’m forever opening and closing my garage door trying to start my car. I think my garage is getting annoyed by it. I’ve got one of those super fast Genie openers so it’s quite a jolt when it stops. And my window, when I need to open my (front, driver side) window, I run my hand up the arm rest and hit the switch which I means I almost always hit the switch for the rear window first. Which then means people constantly ask me why I keep the window locks on…because I’m always rolling all the other windows down by accident.
TL;DR, all this discussion and no one has brought up the old classic [BlondStar](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ch1VlmzXMQ)?
But for the record, in it’s heyday, OnStar was a good service for popping your door locks when you needed it. I’m not sure if the rest of it was worth it, but it was good for that. I know a few people that had it and instead of carrying keys around (for things like baseball/football games), they’d leave their keys in the car and then call OnStar and have them open the doors. I know my dad used the GPS (map/directions) service quite a bit and after he got rid of the service he had it activated then turned back off when he locked himself out. It was cheaper (or at least more convenient) than putting a rock through the window, which he’s also done.
---
### Author:  [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2017, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-lock-yourself-into-your-car/801816/15 "2017-11-17T06:45:13Z")
Yes it can happen. My 1992 BMW 535i had what I called a “dead bolt”. If you locked the car from the outside with the key, you could turn it an extra 45 degrees or so and it would throw the dead bolts. You could hear it. When activated, nothing what so ever moved. Interior door handles, the locking knobs, exterior door handles. You could reach in through an open window and try all you want.
It would not do this with the remote locking fob, only the actual key. However - it would release the deadlock (by design) if the car was bumped and moved a bit. There was a section on the door locks in the manual I forget what the logic was for the bump and release. In fact, it may have unlocked the car not just the dead bolts.
The BMW engineers loved their keys. If you held the key in the dead lock position it would close all the windows and sun roof sequentially. I loved to watch it. Far side front window first, then far side rear, driver’s front, driver’s rear, sun roof. It waited a few seconds after each window started down before starting the next one, only two moving at any time.
That freaking door lock must have cost a fortune to replace with all the switches in it. Here are photos of it, Holy Crap!
> **[BMW double lock deadbolt explained, and how to unlock it](https://www.e46fanatics.com/threads/bmw-double-lock-deadbolt-explained-and-how-to-unlock-it.1001764/)**
>
> \*UPDATE #2\*
> August 17 2013 7:12PM
> If any of you have done the two-ziptie method to "fix" your exterior handle or have thought about doing it - don't. This was the problem the whole time. My latch is perfectly functioning. At least I documented...
Here is a case where the owner caught a guy in his car trying to steal it and he dead bolted it with the remote, must have added that feature later.
> **[Guy tries to steal BMW, owner locks him in using double lock feature.](https://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=708588)**
>
> Guy tries to steal BMW, owner locks him in using double lock feature.
Other posts on BMW forums show there are various ways to end up locked in the car, it appears that different methods were used over the years.
Dennis
---
### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2017, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-lock-yourself-into-your-car/801816/16 "2017-11-17T12:47:06Z")
Worst case scenario, I’d unzip a window and climb outa my jeep.
---
### Author:  [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2017, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-lock-yourself-into-your-car/801816/17 "2017-11-17T13:04:25Z")
Here is a [story](http://www.foxnews.com/story/2008/08/12/report-french-teen-suffocates-after-parents-lock-him-in-hot-car-overnight.html) of a 13 year old dying because he couldn’t get out of a locked car. It was a rental car and his parents had no idea it couldn’t be opened from the inside once they locked it. They were charged with involuntary manslaughter, presumably for not investigating why he never came inside after 12 hours in the car.
---
### Author:  [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2017, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-lock-yourself-into-your-car/801816/18 "2017-11-17T13:16:24Z")
When renting cars it’s always a problem trying to figure out how some pretty basic things work.
More troubling, the owner’s manual is usually not in the glove compartment.
The idea that people renting a car might not be able to easily figure out how to get out of the car ini an emergency is disturbing.
BTW: I know people who are just flat out terrible at figuring things out. And they usually are also bad at remembering stuff they’ve been told. E.g., “The emergency door release is right there.”
Just because most of us are good at this sort of thing doesn’t mean that everyone is.
---
### Author:  [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2017, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-lock-yourself-into-your-car/801816/19 "2017-11-17T13:24:12Z")
> [@jz78817](#):
>
> there was a case where a guy died after being locked inside his Corvette which has electrically-actuated door releases. but that was because he wasn’t aware there was a manual, mechanical emergency release on the driver’s door.
>
> [Texas man, dog, die inside Corvette when doors and windows won’t open – New York Daily News](http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/texas-man-72-dies-trapped-corvette-dream-car-article-1.2253934)
Good God, how hot is it in Texas? Here in Arizona we have every summer an unfortunate story or two about a toddler or infant being forgotten in a car and found dead but at worst, an hour or so elapsed when it’s 115-degrees outside. Since this was outside a restaurant he’d just left (leaving his phone behind) I would imagine it was only minutes before his plight was discovered. Could no one use a universal key (a large rock) when it became obvious he and the dog were about to croak?
---
### Author:  [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2017, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-lock-yourself-into-your-car/801816/20 "2017-11-17T16:05:06Z")
> [@mixdenny](#):
>
> Yes it can happen. My 1992 BMW 535i had what I called a “dead bolt”. If you locked the car from the outside with the key, you could turn it an extra 45 degrees or so and it would throw the dead bolts. You could hear it. When activated, nothing what so ever moved. Interior door handles, the locking knobs, exterior door handles. You could reach in through an open window and try all you want.
>
> It would not do this with the remote locking fob, only the actual key. However - it would release the deadlock (by design) if the car was bumped and moved a bit. There was a section on the door locks in the manual I forget what the logic was for the bump and release. In fact, it may have unlocked the car not just the dead bolts.
All (most?) cars will unlock when they get into an accident. That way you can get out, or can be removed without anyone having to deal with a locked car. So far as I’ve known, it’s triggered by the airbag sensors.
That deadbolt seems like a lot of security considering there’s a lot of glass that can be broken pretty nearby.
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-lock-yourself-into-your-car/801816.md?page=2)