Escape sinking car homemade tool

Best tool is your brain. Don't drive into deep water. Or fast moving water more than a couple of inches.

Whatever tool you do use to break the window, make sure it's not aluminum!

Homemade... well, you could get a 10" long piece of 1.5" x 1/4" steel flat stock, grind saw teeth into it, then heat with your torch and oil quench it to harden the teeth, then carbide shape the teeth while running water over it, then hone. You would have a saw capable of cutting the belt and also capable of breaking the windows. If you make one end pointy and wrap duct tape around the other end it could also be used for self defense. Spray it with iron phosphate to keep it from rusting.

Seems to me it would be easier to undo the seat belt buckle, put the window down, and open the door. Knowing how to swim would be helpful.

With most cars now having electrical windows and door locks that activate about 5 or 10 mph you stand a good chance of electrical failure when the car is under water.

Multipurpose tool clipped to the passenger seat for easy access. Carjacking isn't a big hobby around here but it would serve to stitch one of those up.

In some cases, you can't undo the seatbelt. You can't open the door in almost all cases. And once the water presses against the window, you can't open the window.

For example I've watched the videos (they abound on the net) where even the safety diver in the back seat had to cut his seatbelt when the car flipped upside down (seatbelts are apparently not designed to work when you're pressing against them upside down).

I've watched muliple videos where they tested how soon you have to start to open the car door, where it's essentially immediately upon hitting the water. After that, it's a thousand pounds of pressure against the door, which nobody can force no matter how strong you think you may be.

The only other time you can open the door is after the pressure equalizes, which means the air is essentially long gone, and even then, if the water is deep, you'll never make it to the surface alive.

Likewise with the windows. While the electrical system may remain (as long as you leave the key in the ignition), there is a thousand pounds of pressure against the window also.

The paradoxical thought process is that you have to open the window BEFORE the water gets to that level, which is what most people do not want to do (because they feel it will let in more water - which it will).

The standard recommendation is SWO S = seatbelt W = window O = get out

Swimming is optional.

Paul in Houston TX snipped-for-privacy@Houston.Texas wrote

Not always possible with modern electrically driven windows with the car full of water.

And knowing how to deal with crocodiles and sharks.

True, one of the reasons that I like my old cars. I consider manual crank windows to be a feature.

knuttle <keith snipped-for-privacy@sbcglobal.net wrote

That’s not true. The reality is that once the car has started to fill with water, the electrically operated windows can no longer be opened.

Don’t buy that one either.

But that doesn’t stop it sliding. The problem is that with the car half full of water, the eclectic motor no longer works, particularly with salt water.

But so does smashing the window with that tool.

Easier said than down with the window and the car half full of water.

Buck knife for the belt, automatic center punch for the door window.

This is why, for safety, I always keep a full oxyacetylene rig set for cutting in the car with me. As long as the water doesn't get above the level of the flint, this is a reasonable safety precaution that everyone should take.

Of course, you may find yourself in a situation where that's not enough. That's why, for safety, I always keep my trunk full of dynamite because you never know when you might need it for moving obstacles on the road.

Safety is important! Think of the children!

--scott

Are the locks and window motors computer controlled in modern cars? In my 06 Kia they are not comp controlled. Motors and batteries work just fine submerged in water for a while.

Very sad.

Power windows often work even when the car is submweged or for a little while after the engine is off. But I woudln't wait until then to check.

Amazing that they would sell something like this. Isn't aluminum as expensive as steel? Maybe they had some left-over aluminum.

I'm not sure I have a modern car. It's a 2005.

There you go. Actually, I think my windows will go up or down for maybe

30 seconds after the key is out of the ignition. Hadn't thought about it, but it might be the same time until the headlights go off.

So the computer is making them work longer.

Yes, if the ignition is still on, I'm sure you have 2 or 3 times as long.

Are people saying that the sideways pressure of the water forces the window against its channel and that's why it won't go down?

It was in the videos so look for them but you can think about it.

You already agree there's about a thousand pounds against the door. Why wouldn't there be about a thousand pounds against the window? (the actual pressure depends on the area - but go with the idea)

Certainly the same pressure per square inch against the door is against the windows once the water gets to that level so the question is really what happens to your car windows when you force them with appreciable force sideways?

I don't know the answer but the expert's suggestion is don't wait until it actually happens to find that out as these people may very well have done this week.

It's not that I doubt this. I just want to understand what's being said.

Where i go there isn't much chance of getting caught like this. I can't think of any underpasses that dip below the normal street level. There are streams that flood, but I don't commute anymore so I probably wouldn't be out those days.

My brother once drove through some water and damaged his car that way. Don't know details. maybe he just got the ignition system too wet.

It's not that the pressure would be lower but that a very well made window would be able to slide down even under pressure, wheels at the bottom, facing outward, instead of glides or maybe nothing. It's certainly possible to make a window like that if they tried, but I don't think they try, and I don't blame them for that, given how rarely it's an issue, one in 30 million per year?

I'll get back to you. If I stop posting suddenly, check the weather here.

It will be less on the windows than on the doors because of the area. Say a car window has about 2 sqft of surface. That is 288 sqin for the window. If only 1 pound of pressure per sqin that is 288 pounds of pressure. If 5 feet under water it will be just over 2 lb per sqin.

So you have about 500 pounds on the window if just slightly under water. If around 10 feet under it will be around 1000 pounds of pressure in the window trying to push in on you .

Not according to Mythbusters, at least for a while. A window-breaking device would definitely be useful, though. Just In Case. And DO NOT KEEP IT IN YOUR TRUNK TOOLBOX!

I watched the video to figure out how this could have happened. No information other than total stupidity. You get stuck in an underpass. You see the water rising. You open the window or door and climb out onto the hood or roof or swim out of the underpass. IT'S A FUCKING POND, not a raging river.

You DON'T just sit in your car and wait to drown.