How to Survive a Sinking Car (Don’t Call 911 Yet)

If your car goes into the water, don’t call 911. Not yet. You have about one minute, and the call would burn all of it.

Watch the full 11-minute video: How to Survive When It Snows for 1 Year

STEPS
1. Seatbelt
2. Window
3. Kids
4. Out
Then call.

Go look at the bottom corner of your side window. Does it say TEMPERED or LAMINATED? Tell me in the comments.

You and the kids are a story. The rules and the numbers are real.
– About one minute to get out, don’t touch your phone, seatbelt off, window open, children first from oldest to youngest: Dr. Gordon Giesbrecht, University of Manitoba (Giesbrecht and McDonald, “My Car Is Sinking”, Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine, 2010; NPR, March 26, 2024; KUOW).
– Opening a door makes the car sink much faster; a test car was fully under in 150 seconds: the same 2010 study.
– Electric windows should still work for about a minute: Dr. Giesbrecht.
– Break a side window in a lower corner, never the windshield, which is laminated: AAA.
– About 1 in 3 2018 vehicle models have laminated side windows. AAA tested six escape tools on laminated glass and none got through: AAA, Vehicle Escape Tools research report, July 2019.
– Average ambulance response of about 7 minutes (median over 14 minutes in rural areas): Mell and others, JAMA Surgery, 2017.
– More than half of flood drownings happen when a vehicle is driven into flood water: CDC, cited by the National Weather Service’s Turn Around Don’t Drown campaign.

AAA says the glass type is printed in the bottom corner of each side window, and that it can differ from window to window. Know which of yours is tempered.

Animated story. General safety information, not professional advice. Cars and situations differ, so follow your local emergency services.

#survival #howtosurvive #sinkingcar

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