Comments on: What I learned in traffic school

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 13:26:52 +0000

Thieves and rescue units have known about the spring-loaded centerpunch for many years. It’s amazingly effective. Just push and when it trips, the glass shatters.

Now, will I be able to find it when I need it, or will I have borrowed it from the console when I installed the trailer hitch…

By: Lindsay D.

Lindsay D. — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 00:06:16 +0000

Yes, they did cover this on Mythbusters, and actually, letting your car fill up with water before opening your door doesn’t help – the pressure never equalizes. And they did show that power locks worked after under water for about 45 minutes after the fact. There’s also a little device that you can get that breaks your window for you with very little effort – it cracks the window or something.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 22:27:00 +0000

There is one big drawback with the newer power-everything cars: Your electric door locks and electric windows might not work once the car is partially submerged.

In 2004, I spoke to an attorney that was prosecuting a case where a lady had driven off the freeway and into a drainage system. She wasn’t strong enough to kick out a window and couldn’t unlock the car or roll down the windows because the electrics shorted out. The lady’s family was suing the auto manufacturer for wrongful death, for not providing a mechanical means of escape. I wish I knew how that case turned out.

I would add as a tip – unlock the car door and start rolling down those windows as soon as possible. You don’t know how long the power- features will last.

By: Lindsey

Lindsey — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 22:01:41 +0000

Yes this came on about 2 weeks ago on Mythbusters, they tested several different escape tatics and found that staying calm was best

it was a good show, im sure it will be on a rerun

By: Hilary

Hilary — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 21:45:27 +0000

Jachim and Jeremiah–he had to cross two sets of double yellow lines (a big no no) to get into the turn lane.

By: Hilary

Hilary — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 21:44:54 +0000

Jachim and Jeremiah–he had to cross two sets of double yellow lines (a big no no in LA) to get into the turn lane.

By: Brandon

Brandon — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 21:12:11 +0000

They did this on a recent (awesome) episode of mythbusters. The safest possible way they found was for you to relax and wait till the whole car fills with water so pressure is equalized. you cannot open the door until the car fills with water because you don’t have enough strength to overcome the water pressure. Rolling down the window is the same way because the motor doesn’t have enough power to move the window with so much pressure on it. The window hammer available from hardware store worked beautifully though. I would recommend that the California DMV watch Mythbusters because their advice could really hurt you here.

By: Cait

Cait — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 21:07:53 +0000

Didn’t they cover this on an episode of “Mythbusters”?

By: Mel

Mel — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 20:53:01 +0000

I believe what was meant was that the line of cars was backed up beyond the beginning of the turning lane, thus necessitating the crossing of the center double yellow line (signifying a no-passing zone in the US), into the oncoming lane, in order to reach the empty turning lane.

By: Stew

Stew — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 20:15:31 +0000

There is a british show called top gear which just did a segment on this with an actual test. They have slightly different recommendations. You can see the videos here by going to youtube and searching for
“top gear underwater”