Caspar Benson
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Bridges collapse, roads flood, and GPS errors can mistakenly send you careening into a lake. A sudden and unexpected immersion of water can quickly turn your car into a suffocating death trap.
According to The University of Manitoba’s Gordon Giesbrecht, who trains law enforcement officers and others on underwater-vehicle escape, you’ve got about a minute to get out alive. “Time is critical,” says Giesbrecht. “If you touch your cell phone you’re probably going to die.”
Every year, an estimated 400 people die from drowning in submerged cars with most submerged car accidents happen in coastal states. In the U.S., Florida leads the way with more than 4,000 crashes landing cars in water.
Luckily, we can apply science, math, and a little survival know-how so you’ll never end up on the fast lane to a watery demise.
Popular Mechanics
First, the Science (and the Math)
One of the biggest problems with being stuck in a sinking car is that you have to contend with outside pressure putting a tremendous amount of weight on the car. This is what makes it nearly impossible to open a car door or window until pressure is equalized. To reach equalization, the car would need to be completely submerged and filled with water—and if you’ve arrived at this point, your chances of survival are very slim.
“The best way to get out of a sinking car is to get out before it sinks underwater,” Rhett Allain, associate professor of physics at Southeastern University, tells Popular Mechanics. “If you can open the window or door right away and get out—you should be fine. However, if the car goes underwater, you have a problem.”
To figure out why speed is so important to survival, you need to familiarize yourself with this simple pressure formula: Pressure = Force/Area.
“But that means Force = Pressure x Area,” Allain explains, adding that the deeper the car sinks, the faster pressure all around the car increases.
“The same thing happens in air—but air has a density of 1.2 kilograms per cubic meter and water has a density 1,000 times that (1000 kg/m^3),” Allain says. “If you go down 10 meters (which is way too far), the total pressure (due to the water plus the atmosphere above it) is twice that at the surface of the water.”
Rhett Allain
Staff
To provide perspective, Allain says to consider a door that measures 1 square meter.
“If the pressure on the outside [of the door] is just one tenth of atmospheric pressure (value of 10^5 N/m^2), then this would be a total force of 10,000 Newtons (over 2,000 pounds),” Allain says.
“Since the water increases the pressure on the outside of the door, it’s pretty much impossible to open it. You might be able to open the window—but even there, the water pushes on the window such that it will likely be stuck and not move down,” he adds.
Rule 1: Brace and Unbuckle
Before you can worry about drowning, you first have to survive the impact, meaning it’s vital that you keep your seatbelt on. It might seem like a time-saving measure to unbuckle before impact, but because of the unpredictable nature of a car crash, you can’t be sure you won’t hit your head on something and pass out.
“Increase your stopping distance. If you are smashed up against the dashboard when the car hits the water, you are going to stop in the same distance the car stops,” Allain says. “However, if you have a seatbelt on or the car uses an airbag—you can continue moving forward as the car stops. This means you will stop over a larger distance than the car.
“Stopping over a larger distance will decrease your acceleration—it’s the high acceleration that causes injury (or worse),” Allain adds.
Once the car hits the water, undo your seatbelt and get to work.
Rule 2: Don’t Open Any Doors
Roll down the windows instead. Opening the door is very difficult against the water pressure. In the event that you manage to get the door open, water is going to rush into the vehicle, which can be even more disorienting and will make the car sink faster.
Because the door isn’t an option, you’ll only have 30 to 60 seconds until the water rises to the bottom of the passenger windows, or what Giesbrecht calls the floating period. After that, the water pressure will force the window against the doorframe, making it impossible to roll down.
🚙 Also remember, the car is going to sink with the heaviest end pointed down first—this is typically wherever the engine is located.
Rule 3: Break That Window
Since most vehicles have electronically controlled windows, the circuits could short before you have a chance to roll them down. In that case, you’ll need a tool to break the window. Two of the most popular are the LifeHammer, which has a hardened-steel point to help crack open the window, and the ResQMe keychain, which uses a spring-loaded mechanism to shatter glass.
If you plan on practicing with either one of these, take it from personal experience and wear work gloves. Otherwise you will cut your hands.
“Make sure these tools are within reach at all times, otherwise you’ll never get to them in time,” says Giesbrecht. “And they won’t work underwater. Again, you’ve got to act quickly.”
Rule 4: Children First
Everybody should go out their own window if possible, but the kids are going to have a harder time fighting through the rush of water, so push them out if you have to. Giesbrecht suggests starting with the oldest kids and taking the youngest out in your arms.
Rule 5: Get Out
Swim through the broken window as fast as possible.
If you’ve failed to get a window rolled down or broken, you’ll still have the slightest of chances to escape. Once water fills the car, the pressure will be equalized and you will be able to open the door. But to do this, you will also have to be an expert at holding your breath in an extremely stressful situation. Giesbrecht says that unless you’re a modern-day Houdini, the odds are pretty slim.
Your best bet is to maximize your efforts during those first precious seconds to remove yourself (and children) from a sinking car.
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October 11, 2020 at 08:00PM
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