The guy was 89…he wasn’t going to clamber out any windows without a lot of help.
Obviously this guy shouldn’t have been driving at all. Better he only killed himself instead of plowing into another driver or a bunch of pedestrians.
This sort of driving error seems to be more common than it should. Here is another one from a few years ago near me.
http://www.kgw.com/news/Car-crashes-in-river-divers-searching-Seaside-120683094.html
I think alcohol was later found to be a factor, but the river runs right through the middle of town, and maybe in the dark of night the smooth black surface of the water looked like a roadway. Don’t know.
Here’s one from just last week. They were out hiking, got lost, were rescued, and dropped off at their car. Whew, that was close.
Then they drove (at apparently excessive speed) through dense fog, took a wrong turn, and drove down a boat ramp into water. Like the old man currently under discussion, these two young women decided the most promising course of action was to dial 911. The two women, their dog, and one unborn child all drowned because these women could not figure out how to get out of a sinking car. :smack:
Save the political comments for the Pit or GD…don’t post like this in any thread not about the topic again.
Okay, I realize this was meant to be helpful, but it’s the stuff of nightmares.
How many of you have ever climbed out of a car through a side window?
I tried this several years ago (when I was younger and more limber than now), just for a practice “fire drill”.
It’s awkward. Especially on the driver’s side, the steering wheel gets in the way as you try to maneuver to the window. I also practiced climbing across the front seats to the passenger side, which I thought was actually a little easier. Either way, I had some doubts that one could maneuver oneself out the window in the time that you could hold your breath, unless maybe you’re well-practiced at it. It’s awkward.
My car at the time was a hatchback. I also tried climbing over the seat into the back and going out the back hatch. That too was awkward, but IIRC doable. You have to know how to open the back hatch from the inside, which might not be obvious (and maybe not even possible). IIRC, I started by opening the hatch with the lever by the driver’s seat; but there might be a way to open it from the actual inside of the hatch too.
What are you going on about, operationally it was entirely the elderly drivers fault that he put himself in peril by driving his brand new SUV into the pond.
I imagine you tried this feet-first, otherwise you’d fall to the ground. Yeah, that could be tricky. But if you were in the water, you would go head-first, which isn’t quite as awkward.
To be fair, she really wasn’t crew… unless he was paying her:eek:
Really?
I guess so.
Thank-you all for your contributions to this thread. I’ve learned a lot about how to not die in this situation - take off anything heavy before egress :smack: - and I’ve unlearned some things - just wait until the pressure equalizes and then open the door:smack:.
I’m hoping to never have to put any of this to use but knowing it makes me feel somewhat better just in case.
Although I can’t swim worth a tinker’s dam.
My car does that as well but not all do. Also it has to be in Park for that to work and I could easily see in a panic not even thinking to shift the gear into Park.
ETA: Also, as I understand it, once a car door is submerged, opening the door becomes very difficult due to the water pressure.
Apparently the water pressure makes opening the door impossible pretty quickly as the car falls into the water, so getting out the window is the only realistic option.
I wish this was better known. It’s too bad that it sounds like this man’s rescuers probably didn’t know that, or he might have been saved. Even if he was too slow or weak to break the window and get out by himself, I bet someone could have dragged him out a window if they had known to do so.
I think everyone should carry a tool that can be used to break the window glass in their car just in case they end up in this kind of scenario.
I understand the motivation, but this is still a less than 1 in a million sort of accident. (Fewer than 300 people a year in a country with over 300 million people, and most of those were trying to drive through floods where it’s unlikely this would help). If you had a choice between going out and buying this tool or taking a walk around the block I suspect statistically the walk would have a greater affect on your expected mortality.
What I had in mind is just buying a hammer or glass puncher to either keep in the glovebox or put on your keychain. Nothing fancy or expensive.
Even though none of us expect something like this to happen, it CAN happen to anyone. Anyone can lose control of their car and end up in a pond or something.
If you are the unlucky person who ends up in this situation, you are probably going to die in a horrifying way if you can’t make a very quick escape through the window. I would not want to COUNT on the electrical system for the window to keep working long enough to make it out of the car, or count on being able to break glass with my bare hands. I don’t see any reason not to take a simple, inexpensive step to try to avoid a horrible, terrifying death.
Exactly. $10-20 could save a life. If you can afford that, why not add it to your car safety stuff? It doesn’t have to be a submerged car emergency, it could be a car crash with unconscious passengers where you run up to help and can’t get the door open. Safely breaking out a window could help you save them.
I have a fire extinguisher in the kitchen and the car. It’s the same thing - never had fires but it would be nice to have if something happened.
can’t a fire extinguisher break a window?
There was a thread about a child trapped in a hot car.
I posted some links to tools designed to quickly break a car window - and why you might need a real tool to do the job.
I do have one of those hammers/belt cutters - and an embarrassing story about almost using it. Hot day, I was waiting in the car for mr singular with the ac running (but ignition off). A tiny perfect storm happened. I fell asleep and the battery ran down. I was startled awake by the sweat pouring down my face and really stuffy air. Still groggy, I tried to open the door, but I’d locked them when I parked and with no power I couldn’t open the doors or windows. I started to freak out because I was having trouble breathing in the heat, so I called the doctors office in a panic. Fortunately someone guessed I could pull up the knob & get out. I sat there feeling really stupid for a while before going in to arrange for a jump. I felt like the blond in the dumb blond jokes, but I was seriously panicked! So I can see how that stuff happens.