If your car ends up in a body of water, what should you do?

Question

My mother and me were having an argument about what to do if your car ends up in a body of water and you are in it. Her theory was to roll down the windows as soon as possible but I had heard that you should wait until the car hits the bottom and then either open the door or break the window or roll down the window. So, hypothetically speaking, lets say my car loses control for some reason and I fly into an body of water in it. What should I do??

Answer 1

Mythbusters, I love that show! They tried to wait until the car filled up with water to equalize the pressure but he ran out of air before he could open the door. Part of the problem was most cars have the engine in the front so when it sinks the front tilts down and as it sinks and the air inside the car all goes to the back. The people in the front seat will be under water long before the car completely fills with water.

They couldn't open the windows after the water level reaches them even with power windows. There's too much water pressure pressing against the window.

They tried to break the windows by kicking and hitting it with a cell phone and couldn't break them. The water slows your action too much.

The only way to get out was to immediately open the door or open the window before the water reaches the window or to break the window with one of those emergency tools that have a hammer with a sharp point on it or use an automatic center punch.

Answer 2

Actually if you open the doors within the first 2-3 seconds or so, they can be opened. After that, the water pressure outside the car is so high, that you can't even roll down the windows against it. as soon as you go below the surface you double the atmospheric pressure against the doors. Then, every 33 feet down, you add another atmosphere of pressure. You have only one choice, ride the car down while it fills with water. once enough water is inside the car to equal the pressure outsie, you can open a door or window. Unfortunateley, by then, your probably out of air. Thats why so many people die in flooded cars.

Answer 3

either way is possible. you can roll down the window at an early start but usually you may have to wait just a little bit and try to break the window once you have gone under water. I have watched this on mythbusters and I can't really remember what it was that they said but you can go to their website and check to see if you can find the story they did about that ad see if you can get your answer from there but I can tell you that no you can not open your door once you hit the water. that fact they did prove was inpossible to do and you can only do that once the water has stablized inside and outside of your car. but the window is onething that I think that you can bust at anygiven time....now don't quote me on that cause I'm not for sure but go to their website and try to look it up.

Answer 4

If you’re lucky, the vehicle is floating or sinking slowly. If you are sinking rapidly, you need to wait for the water pressure inside the vehicle to become equal to the pressure outside.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6091821
Read the full articles, it is far too muchinformation to even condense in this small space.
Escape usually requires only a cool head, a little know-how and, sometimes, patience.
http://www.wikihow.com/Escape-from-a-Sinking-Car
All cars sink, but they sink at different rates. Open the window and get out of the car as soon as you can--if possible, before it starts to sink.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/01/31/health/main326915.shtml

Answer 5

search the discovery channel website under the Myth Busters links, I know that they did an episode on this not that long ago. I just don't remember what they figured out.