Emergency FAIL

[unixronin]

QUICK.  You're trapped in a storm drain.  You have a cell phone and, by good fortune, cell signal.

What's the first thing you do?

Call emergency services for rescue, right?

Not if you're one of these two teenage pre-teen dim-bulbs.

Comments

[luxobscura.livejournal.com]

Bahahaha! You made my day, and I sincerely look forward to reading many, many more of this type of story in the coming years, as technology makes us stupider and more helpless under the guise of "enabling our efficiencies".

Is there an iPhone app for starting a fire in the woods to stave off hypothermia yet? If not, someone oput to get on that.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I swear I'm not making this up:

I read an article in New Scientist (or maybe Scientific American) recently talking about the increasing reliance of the younger generation of Inuit hunters upon hand-held GPS technology. The article mentioned that in several cases when for one reason or another the technology failed, hunters had become lost for days at a time, and in several cases had almost died as a result.

The article also mentioned that prior to the adoption of GPS technology among the younger Inuit, the Inuit language did not even have a word for "lost". The concept had no meaning among the Inuit. How could you possibly not know where you were?

[montieth.livejournal.com]

Probably because in inuit, lost meant dead.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Now that you mention it, that's a pretty good theory.

[luxobscura.livejournal.com]

I don't even know how to respond to this...this...this is the most fascinating and horrifying thing I've read in months.

You sir, are a wealth of information I find very to be very interesting and important.

missed it by that much...

[montieth.livejournal.com]

Almost a Darwin action.

I wonder if we're going to change from a society of "haves" and "have nots" to a society demarked by those who "think" and those who "think not".

Re: missed it by that much...

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I find myself unable to resist saying "It's about bloody time". Natural selection FTW.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

I had a colleague who came to work ashen one Monday. Over the weekend, two of her friends were in a car that went off a road into a lake. They drowned while calling their friends for help -- and leaving messages! -- using their cellphones in the submerged car as it filled with water.

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

But not calling 911?

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

Or, like, just getting out of the car and swimming?

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that'd be my first thought in that situation. Even if I couldn't get a door or window open, I have a hard time imagining not being able to find some way to break a side window.

[cipherpunk.livejournal.com]

The top of the head is the hardest part of the body, and since the person sitting next to me who's calling friends desperately on the cellphone isn't using their head, I might as well appropriate it for use as a field expedient egress tool for the duration of the present emergency.

[johnkzin.livejournal.com]

According to mythbusters, drowning in a car is actually pretty easy, because getting out of the car is pretty difficult after the water is high enough up to keep the doors closed (due to pressure differences).

Until the water pressure inside matches the water pressure outside, you're not going to be able to open the doors or manual windows (automatic windows are pretty much a huge mark against your survival -- if you wait long enough to open them that the electricity shorts, then those windows aren't going to be opening for you at all).

Breaking the windows once the pressure has equalized is difficult, because the water INSIDE the cabin will dampen your swing (with whatever you're swinging). But, you can probably break them with something earlier in the process (before water is on either side of the window).

But, point is, if you aren't prepared, once the car is down far enough for the pressure to keep the doors closed, you've got such a narrow margin of survival at that point, and such a short time to achieve it, that it wont matter who you call. 911 is too far away. Might as well call mom/dad/wife/kids and say good bye. IF you aren't prepared, and IF you aren't ready to do it.

Great reason to buy one of those little gadgets for cutting your seat belt and breaking your windows though. But, mainly, you want to get out of the car ASAP... _before_ the water is at the doors (ie. before that gadget is even necessary).

[micheinnz.livejournal.com]

Top Gear showed that it is possible to get out of a car in the water _as long as you start moving immediately_.

[johnkzin.livejournal.com]

Pretty much the same as what I was saying at the end: "get out of the car ASAP".

Adam on mythbusters was able to get out after being fully submerged, but only with careful preparation (he knew he had to be ready with a BIG breathe of air, he had to stay calm, he had to do a specific set of tasks, etc.) ... and even then, I think he said it was damn scary.

That was on his second try.

The first try didn't go as well.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Now that you mention it, I think I remember that episode.

I think the key things here are: (1) don't panic; (2) don't dawdle about, get moving RIGHT AWAY while you have air; (3) be prepared in advance with a suitable tool at hand to break a window; (4) think fast what to improvise with if you don't have one; and (5) DON'T HESITATE TO BREAK THE WINDOW, it's just a piece of tempered glass — it won't cut you, and it can be replaced if the car's not a total write-off anyway.


ISTR the "myth" conclusion was "Yes, those little escape hammers really do work."

[micheinnz.livejournal.com]

Yup. My comment was intended as reinforcement, not repudiation.

[nephthys510.livejournal.com]

One of the small joys of my life is reading snark communities with their weekly "Dear Doctor LJ" snarks.

• I had sex. Am I pregnant?
  
• I'm bleeding out of all my orifices and passing out, what should I do?
  
• My boyfriend stopped breathing, what should I do?

I don't know. Go to the doctor?

[cipherpunk.livejournal.com]

Am I allowed to vote for the option "show some initiative, drive and wisdom, instead of being a sheeple entirely dependent on mobthink for your every decision"?

Yes? I am? Okay, cool. I'll go with that one. :)

[attutle.livejournal.com]

I had sex. Am I pregnant?

Yes. Now please go to the hospital and take a baby at your earliest convenience. If twins are common in your family, take two.

I'm bleeding out of all my orifices and passing out, what should I do?

Take several aspirin for the pain, and everything will be better soon. Other pain relief products won't work as well, be sure you use aspirin.

My boyfriend stopped breathing, what should I do?

He's just trying to get a reaction out of you. Now would be a great time to send him a threatening email message, listing all the things you can't stand about him.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

BWAHAHAHAHA! You are evil, Sir. :)

[lwj2.livejournal.com]

Snork.

Be sure to wash the aspirin down with a dozen extra-strength Tylenol, your liver will appreciate the help.

Bite your boyfriend viciously. If he doesn't wake up and scream, have lunch.

[cipherpunk.livejournal.com]

In their defense, I can imagine a situation in which their actions would make sense. If there's no guarantee how long the cell signal will be intact, I might type out a Twitter or a Facebook message. If it goes through, great; if it doesn't, I wait ten seconds for the Radio Gods to restore connectivity, and pump out 150-odd characters ("help! trapped! storm drain @ corner: Ellsworth/Fenton 20910!").

It would be a more reliable way of getting help than trusting a cell signal that was crapping out every ten seconds.

Of course, I doubt this is actually what happened. Sigh.

[wyrdling.livejournal.com]

i am frightened at my lack of surprise....

[rain-manpnw.livejournal.com]

Um ...

Did ANYONE notice the age of these girls?!?

12 and ...

10.

Hardly "teen-age dim-bulbs". More like frightened little girls who panicked and did the first thing that came to their minds - which was reach out to the contact they used all the time.

Sheesh, give 'em a break, 'k?

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

OK, I stand minorly corrected: "Pre-teen dim-bulbs." If they have enough savvy to know how to post to Facebook from their cell phones, they have enough savvy to be expected to know how to dial 911 (or 999, or 000).

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

I think I agree with what someone said elsenet, it's parenting fail for not teaching the girls to call emergency services. But I also remember that a big thing in school was to remind kids that if something happens like an accident in front of them to remember to call 911 to get help.

We put the question to Goose and Pirate. Their first reactions was to dial 911.

[databeast.livejournal.com]

Crowdsourcing does not work in an emergency kids.