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

[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.