How Can You Escape a Sinking Car?

Being trapped in a car is a scary thought, but safety experts say that being prepared for emergencies saves lives. Learn what devices can help and how to use them in this episode of BrainStuff.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff,
Lauren Volga Bomb Here. Have you ever considered what would
happen if you were trapped in your car? What if
you ran off the road into a body of water
and started to sink? Would you know what to do?
Would you be able to break a window to escape?
Those questions are the heart of a study released in

(00:22):
twenty nineteen by the American Automobile Association or Triple A.
The report actually looks at the different types of glass
in a car and how that glass can affect your
chances of escape. If you had to break a window
to get out, you might not know it, but the
glass for your car's windshield might be different from the
glass and the windows. Some might be tempered glass and
some might be laminated glass. Eliminated glasses designed not to

(00:46):
break even in a crash to decrease the odds that
someone in the car will be ejected. And that matters
because if you need to get out in an emergency,
you might not be able to even using car escape
tools designed to help you. The Triple A study showed
that most car escape tools were effective at breaking tempered glass,
but not laminated glass. In fact, none of the tools

(01:07):
tested in the study were able to completely break through
laminated glass. A few were effective at spider webbing the
glass only. An increasing number of new vehicles have switched
from using tempered side glass windows to laminated side glass windows,
as many as one in three vehicles. That's in response
to federal safety standards. However, most cars that have primarily

(01:28):
laminated glass also have at least one window made of
tempered glass. According to Triple A, each of a car's
windows should have a sticker in the bottom corner that
indicates the glass type. If you can't find it, you
can contact your vehicles manufacturer and ask. Furthermore, just because
the study shows that car escape tools aren't always effective
doesn't mean you shouldn't have one in your car. On

(01:51):
the contrary, we spoke by email with Greg Brannan, triple As,
director of Automotive Engineering and Industry Relation. He said Triple
A recommends a spring loaded style tool, as we found
that some of the hammer tools we tested broke when
impact in the glass. Keep in mind that any tool
you select will only be effective for breaking tempered glass.

(02:14):
These tools are also especially useful in case your seatbelt
release doesn't work. Some car escape tools incorporate blades that
let you quickly and safely slice your seatbelt rather than
fumbling with a buckle that might not open. Spring loaded
style tools contain an inner mechanism that consists of a
sharp spike that can be deployed with enough force to
break a tempered glass window thanks to a coiled spring.

(02:37):
After you buy such a tool, you should test it
on the surface of a notepad or piece of soft wood.
You'll hear a click, and when you remove the device
from the surface, you'll see an indented hole, meaning that
the device works. Online demonstrations can also help you familiarize
yourself with how to use the tool just in case.
Now for the scary part. If you get into an
accident where you must escape your car, especially if it's

(02:59):
in in water, what do you do. Make sure you
know what type of glass your car's driver side window has.
If it's laminated, know that you will need to escape
through a different window if it won't roll down. If
your car has all laminated glass, it's critical to get
a window rolled down as quickly as possible. The experts
we talked to all recommended the sure method as an

(03:22):
easy way to remember what to do in the event
of such an emergency. That's sure s stay calm, you
unbuckle your seatbelt or cut if it's jammed, are roll
down or break the windows and e exit the vehicle
quickly and help children out first. Don't call nine one
one until after you've escaped. You can have a matter

(03:43):
of seconds until water rises to the bottom of the
passenger windows, so time is of the essence. It's scary
to think that you might need to prepare for an
incident that traps you in your car, but experts agree
that it's better to acknowledge the possibility. If you have
a tool with an easy reach, and you have some
idea of what to do, you'll save crucial seconds that
could make the difference between escaping from your car or not.

(04:09):
Today's episode was written by Saris three Wit and produced
by Tyler Clain. Brain Stuff is production of I Heart
Radio's How Stuff Works. For more in this and lots
of other emergency preparedness topics, visit our home planet, how
Stuff Works dot com and for more podcasts. For my
heart Radio, visit i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or
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