I keep seeing articles that recommend I buy a car escape tool like one of the many on this page. The idea is that I can break open a window or cut off my seat belt if I am trapped in my car.
Is there any evidence that such a tool has helped even a single person ever in the history of cars to safely escape when they were trapped? ideally, you could provide links to reputable news articles describing the death-defying experience. I am highly suspicious of any testimonials from either manufacturers or product review websites.
I find it unlikely that in the event of a terrible car crash, the driver is going to be unable to unfasten the seat belt or to open the door or window but will be able to retrieve the tool from wherever it is kept then either smash the window or cut their seat belt as needed to escape. Of course, if there is even a 1 in a million chance of it being useful, with 150 million drivers in America and seemingly scads of these things sold, there should be at least a handful of cases when these things have helped people. Are there?
I don’t know of anyone using one of these tools for self rescue, but I can attest to their usefulness when pulling up to the scene of accidents to get someone out of vehicles. I have been a volunteer firefighter for 30 years; and I have carried a seatbelt cutter and a window breaker in my vehicle and in my gear for several years. I have used both when responding to vehicle accidents or pulling up to them in my personal vehicle.
You are correct about people being able to retrieve them in their own vehicle after a wreck. I have seen several accidents where the driver kept the window breaker in the trunk of the car, which does nothing if you need to break a window in your own car to escape. If you are going to carry one for self rescue, it should be kept within arms reach without having to lean to get to it and should be attached in a way that it doesn’t become a projectile in a crash.
We had both window breaking tools & seat belt cutters on all the wreckers that I used to operate. We used them on a surprising amount of wrecks. I still carry them in my daily driver. It is amazing how often I use them.
I also do not ever recall hearing of, or seeing anyone using these tools for self rescue.
So two votes for it won’t help me but I should get one so I can help someone else? I guess that’s not too bad although it doesn’t exactly match the sales pitch. That also implies that keeping it in the trunk isn’t really such a terrible idea.
Anyone else have tales of drivers rescuing themselves?
I think that the same rule applies to fire extinguishers in cars. Hardly ever used on the car they are in, but not infrequently used on third party fires.
A friend of mine from my high school days slid his car sideways into a water filled ditch and very nearly rolled it. As he felt water climbing up his legs, he freaked and smashed his way out of the driver’s window. I don’t know if he had a special tool or if he just brute forced it. Once safely out of the car, the cold light of reason showed up and he noted two important details. First, he saw that the water would not have come past his knees. Second, the driver’s door was undamaged and opened easily.
I know of two cases where a tool could have saved a life if present:
One of the NCOs in my brigade lost control of his car and ended up in the water. He’d had several combat deployments and the associated mandatory trips to the HMMWV rollover trainer. The details obviously are fuzzy because he died without witnesses. He attempted a 911 call. I forget if he lost contact right away or they just found the number in his phone from the attempt. His body was found in the back seat of the car near the last remaining pocket of air. While it was also the high point where he would have floated, the police seemed to think it was unlikely he would have just ended up there from the driver’s seat because of all the stuff in the way. He didn’t have any major injuries from the crash that would have obviously made using the escape tool impossible; he died from drowning not the crash itself. It certainly looked like he kept his head and could have used the escape tool if it was present.
A better news case because someone showed up to help in the nick of time. The First Sergeant who was my acting Command Sergeant Major responded to a call in his civilian job as a sheriffs deputy shortly after he demobilized. On arrival he found the car starting to burn. Inside was the driver struggling with a seat belt that wouldn’t release. He cut the seat belt and got the driver out before the car was completely engulfed in flames. The timing was close and he covered the less populated unincorporated areas. The typical response times could be slow. It could be even longer for what, in the initial call, was just a car accident without a threat to life. The driver got lucky that he was both close and not responding to an actual crime. Without that luck the inability to cut the seat belt could easily have been fatal.
I don’t know if that second case got any press coverage. It was a rural area and without a fatality. If it doesn’t bleed, it doesn’t lead. The first case got a little coverage because of the fatality. That public reporting had almost no detail; he lost control, ended up in the water and drowned. I found out the details only because our brigade safety officer followed up with the police for the Army reporting and to support developing training for our next brigade safety briefing.
I suspect that the media coverage points to an issue with the question. Having proven claims certainly supports the usefulness of the tools. A relative lack of reports may not mean the tools aren’t helpful. It is certainly a great story for the local reporter. There are a lot of nonfatal car accidents, though, and that local reporter needs to have a reason to investigate yet another nonfatal car accident. I would expect new stories to dramatically under report the kinds of evidence we are looking for.
Aren’t you supposed to be able to use your headrests to break out a window? They have long metal posts going into the seat. That won’t help you get out of a jammed seatbelt though.
I have escaped from a car that flipped off a bridge and went into the water - upside down - through the ice. The last thing I could have done was hunt around for something. Absolute panic. As water poured in I managed to get my seat belt off and found myself in the back seat sitting on the roof. I tried to kick out the back window and it did not budge. I turned my attention to the rear side window and kicked it with both feet. It broke. From the force of my kick plus the water rushing against my back I shot out like a torpedo. This all took like 10 seconds.
Fortunately the water was not too deep as the wheels were above the water. The lights were still on, the horn was honking and burbling and my brother (the driver) was still in his seat. I got his door open and yanked him out. We staggered to the shore. As we stood there freezing a police car drove up!!
This was in a performance rally. The police hooked us up with a ride home. I knocked on my door and the wife stares at the two of us looking rather the worse for wear, soaking wet and clutching army blankets around us. I gave her a weary look and said, “Don’t ask”. She didn’t.
He got out safely in an emergency situation and that’s what is most important. Better to get out than try to calculate the depth and rise of the water. In an emergency people don’t always know how they are going to react. You can plan and train for it, but the situations can be different and people can be disoriented.
