Your car is sinking! Would you survive?

Posted by Jono on 27th Jan 2023

Your car is sinking! Would you survive?

Something has gone horribly wrong.

You have landed in water and your car is sinking fast.

What do you do? 



We hope you never have to find out, but be prepared if you do.

How to get out of a sinking car.

  1. Have a plan. It is not the time to be figuring things out when you are scared.
  2. Act. Don’t wait.
  3. Seatbelt off, open the window, grab your children, get out.
  4. With children, undo restraints oldest to youngest.
  5. Depending on your situation your car usually floats for about a minute before it starts to sink. So you don’t have much time, act quickly.
  6. Don’t touch or use your cell phone, you will run out of time.
  7. Don’t open the doors, it’s almost impossible against the water pressure and it will sink the car faster.
  8. With automatic windows there is no guarantee that your windows will work. Most manufactures say they should work briefly.
  9. Break the window with:
    1. Anything pointy
    2. Elbows
    3. Heel of your shoe
    4. Your car head rest can be removed and used. Some say that the car’s headrest was designed to used to break the car's windows in an emergency. The verdict is still out on whether that is true.
  10. Aim for the center of the window with your sharp object. Don’t try break the windshield (or sunroof), it’s designed to be unbreakable.
  11. If you’re not able to break the window and the car starts to sink.
    1. Don’t panic. The water will be a shock as soon as it touches you, be prepared.
    2. Make sure your doors are unlocked.
    3. Hang onto the side of the car door handle so you don’t float and get disorientated if the car flips.
    4. When the water hits your chin, take a deep breath and hold it.
    5. Once the car has filled up, the pressure inside the car should be the same as outside, open up the door (in most cases you will have to use extreme force)
    6. If it is dark and you can't see which way is up, blow out a bit of air and follow the bubbles.


Tactical Solutions has something to give you the edge in a situation like above, to help increase your chances of survival.
It’s called the ResQMe tool and it is impressive.

ResQme car escape tool

PULL CUT BREAK
reqme-pull.gif resqme-seatbelt-cutter.gif resqme-glass-breaker.gif


Make sure to work the tool into your exit plan.

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