MythBusters Car in Water Epsiode

Once the car is filled with water the pressure will equal and it wouldn't be difficult at all to open the door. According to Mythbusters, anyway

Originally posted by enjoies05
If you're underwater you wouldn't be able to open the window. Thats another thing they tested on the show. The weight of the water makes it impossible to open the window manually or power, even at just 2 ft under water.

Hence the "immediately" part. It might still end up being too late, but if you're headed to the water, and you don't lose consciousness, you should have enough time to roll the window down before the window itself is covered by water.

However, if you can't get the window down before the water is up against it, the next best bet is to get a good gulp of air, and climb into the back seat and start strapping the kids to the jugs (or life vest), and prepare for the windshield to cave in, which it will, pretty quick. At that point, once the pressure is equalized between the inside of the car and the outside, you should be able to roll a manual window down, though it might be more prudent at that point just to go through the windshield.

those are all very good suggestions. I didn't see the windshield shatter though, on Mythbusters.. is that due to pressure below 13 feet? or.. is that cause of current?

Only the back and side windshields will shatter. All cars made in the US will contain a 'plexiglas' type of windshield that is meant to keep intact when broken. This is to keep the glass from hitting the drivers face if ever an object on the road breaks the front windshield.

It seems like there was a major difference between the show I watched and the Mythbusters show, which now makes me wish there was a way I could test this myself short of polluting a lake and losing a car.

The show I'm thinking of wasn't Mythbusters, and I wish I could remember the name. I want to say the name of the show was something like "Survival" or something like that. They demonstrated the sinking effect I assume in much the same way Mythbusters probably did, by attaching a car to a crane, and letting it drop into the water, with the crane as a safety backup in the event that the host not being able to escape in time. They had a camera in the back seat positioned towards the driver and windshield. After the water had made it only halfway up the windshield (which took about 45 seconds), there was, in the space of literally two seconds, a long horizontal crack and then the windshield burst inward. This was apparently a very unexpected turn of events, and the host was completely taken by surprise and unable to escape.

Luckily, it being a TV show the circumstances were controlled enough that all someone had to do was haul his car up a few feet with the crane. In real life, he'd have died. Later, he embarassedly described the situation and said once the windshield burst in, he panicked.

So my guess is this: windshields aren't expected to break. It came as a big enough surprise to him and the crew that perhaps it is the rare event when it does happen. But having witnessed it happen, I would, personally, act as if the windshield could shatter inward and flood the interior of the car at any moment. If it held, and, even better, remained water-tight, all the better.

Again though, this is a guess. I don't suppose anyone's done any real emprical tests on this to see what the effects are? One of the problems with only seeing a one-shot from a TV show is that there are so many millions of variables that one can get an incorrect interpretation of fact when perhaps repeated tests prove otherwise. For instance, I could be extremely wrong about every single one of my contentions if it showed that more than half the time it resulted in the deaths of everyone aboard, but it might take upwards of 10, 100, or even 1000 before we could accurately determine that.

Hmmm... you'd think there'd be some kind of safety agency that handles this sort of question.

Originally posted by JessicaS
Yeah, they showed that on Mythbusters... It worked... just... i guess i'm not sure how to get the kids out and keep track of them (if i had them in the car that is) while swimming to the shore?

You'd have to take them out of the car seat of course.

How do I keep them from drowning?

Swim very very fast.

You could probably cover one kids mouth and presumably you aren't going to have two kids that can't cover their mouths so one can hold on you your clothes.

You could also cut your seat belt at two ends and tie it as an emergency rope. That'd take time clearly, but I'd think (And I wouldn't necessarily bet my life on this) that there's enough air in the car to do this quickly.

Les Stroude, who does a show called Survivorman, did a special and showed that there's something like 25 feet of rope if you tie your belts together, this was to have a life line to get back to your car if its stuck in a flood with a strong current. Might seem odd to do anything other than run out of the car, but they allways say, the best survival skill is to think.

Babies do have a 'swim reflex', they can be birthed directly into a pool of water, and reflexively know to keep their mouth closed and not suck water in through their nostrils, and will do a doggy paddle to the surface and keep their heads above water.
BUT that instinct doesn't go into effect shortly after birth.



As far as windshields, in the US, car glass is created such that when it breaks, it breaks into small rounded facets, not shards with edges, this is safety glass, so its not going to kill ya. If the windshield breaks from the weight of the water, all the better, now you don' thave to break it yourself.

ON the show with Les Stroude, he too said that if you need to break open the window, you unhook your rearview mirror from teh windshield, then carefully break the mirror to get rid of the glass on it (this can also be used to cut any belts btw), and then you can use the rearview's casing as a sort of hammer to smash in any windows (looking away of course, and hopefully wrapping your hand in something incase there are any shards in the mirror still).

[edit on 1-2-2007 by Nygdan]

My question stems from a fear i have. What if there are small children in the back seat

You don't have to be fearful, because you should know that you can get yourself and your children safely out of any situation, including this one. It'd be scary, yes, but you don't need to be fearful in it or fear it, because you know that you can get them safely out.

these are all good suggestions.. if i ever find myself in this situation (god forbid), i will try to do what was suggested. Thank you all very much.