Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff
Speaker 1: Lauren Vogelbam here. Preparing for potential emergencies is stressful. For example,
Speaker 1: it's really unlikely that you'll ever be in a car
Speaker 1: accident that winds up with your vehicle being submerged in water.
Speaker 1: For example, in the US, driving heavy country, it only
Speaker 1: happens less than one thousand, five hundred times a year.
Speaker 1: That's less than zero point zero three percent of car
Speaker 1: accidents here. But as with all potential emergencies, having a
Speaker 1: plan in place will help keep you calm and increase
Speaker 1: your chances of getting yourself out. So if you drive
Speaker 1: in areas with bodies of water or the risk of flooding,
Speaker 1: it's worth going through the stressful planning process. The experts
Speaker 1: of the American Automobile Association or Triple A a reckend
Speaker 1: keeping in mind what they call the SURE method that
Speaker 1: stands for stay calm, unbuckle or cut your seat belt,
Speaker 1: roll down or break windows and exit quickly. Helping children first.
Speaker 1: But let's back up a little. The problem with being
Speaker 1: in a sinking car is that water is heavy. So
Speaker 1: if your car is sinking, the pressure of all that
Speaker 1: water on the outside of the car will prevent you
Speaker 1: from opening the doors until the car's cabin fills with
Speaker 1: water and the pressure equalizes. But you don't want to
Speaker 1: wait for that if you don't have to, because breathing
Speaker 1: is good. The best thing is to try to get
Speaker 1: a window opens that you can escape through. There, cars
Speaker 1: sink quickly. You may only have thirty seconds to a
Speaker 1: minute before the water level reaches the passenger windows, so
Speaker 1: you have to act fast. If you can roll a
Speaker 1: window down, that's great, but it may bring you extra
Speaker 1: piece of mind to store an emergency window breaking tool
Speaker 1: in your car though. Back in twenty nineteen, the Triple
Speaker 1: A ran a study about the different kinds of glass
Speaker 1: being included in modern car designs and the ability of
Speaker 1: different tools on the market to break them in case
Speaker 1: of emergency. They overall recommend buying spring loaded style tools
Speaker 1: because the hammer style tools they tried out sometimes broke
Speaker 1: during the test. But their key finding was actually that
Speaker 1: the type of glass your car contains matters the most. Traditionally,
Speaker 1: car windows and rear windshields were made of tempered glass,
Speaker 1: which is designed so that when it breaks, it shatters
Speaker 1: into small chunks that are less likely to cut you
Speaker 1: than normal glass shards. The type of glass in the
Speaker 1: front windshield, meanwhile, is usually laminated glass E. Laminated glass
Speaker 1: is made by sandwiching a layer of polyvinyl butterol between
Speaker 1: two pieces of glass. The glass and the pv BE
Speaker 1: are sealed by a series of pressure rollers and then heated.
Speaker 1: This combination of pressure and heat chemically and mechanically bonds
Speaker 1: the PVB to the glass. That inserted layer of polyvinyl
Speaker 1: allows the glass to absorb energy during an impact and
Speaker 1: gives the glass resistance to penetration from flying projectiles, meaning
Speaker 1: that laminated glass can break and be punctured, but it
Speaker 1: will stay intact because of its chemical bond with the polyvinyl.
Speaker 1: It also deflects up to ninety five percent of ultraviolet
Speaker 1: rays from the sun and helps deflect road noise and
Speaker 1: help quiet down a vehicle's cabin, which is all great
Speaker 1: at preventing flying objects from coming at you through the windshield.
Speaker 1: Anyone who grew up with the Final Destination movies is
Speaker 1: still traumatized from that and at preventing you from being
Speaker 1: ejected out through the windshield in case of a sudden stop.
Speaker 1: But it also means laminated glass can't be shattered by
Speaker 1: escape tools, and an increasing number of new vehicles have
Speaker 1: switched from using tempered side glass windows to laminated side
Speaker 1: glass windows in response to federal safety standards A but
Speaker 1: don't panic. Most new cars with laminated side windows include
Speaker 1: one tempered side window. Stickers near the bottom of each
Speaker 1: window should tell you what the glass is made of.
Speaker 1: If there are no stickers there, you can check your
Speaker 1: owner's manual or get in touch with the manufacturer. If
Speaker 1: your side windows are all laminated glass, you'll know that
Speaker 1: you'll have to roll one down as quickly as possible. Again,
Speaker 1: it's most important to have a plan in place beforehand.
Speaker 1: If you know you can break a window, have an
Speaker 1: escape tool at the ready and know which window to break.
Speaker 1: Just consider watching an online tutorial to familiarize yourself with
Speaker 1: how the device works, and you can test your spring
Speaker 1: loaded escape tool on a notepad or a piece of
Speaker 1: spare wood. If it's working properly, you'll hear a click
Speaker 1: and be able to see a hole or indent in
Speaker 1: the paper or wood. Escape tools can also come in
Speaker 1: handy in case your seat belt buckle gets jammed during
Speaker 1: an accident. Look for tools that include a device for
Speaker 1: safely and easily slicing through seat belts. You want to
Speaker 1: get out of your seat belt before opening or breaking
Speaker 1: a window because water can rush in very fast through
Speaker 1: a window. Again, remember the sure method, Stay calm, unbuckle
Speaker 1: your seat belt or cut it if it's jammed, Roll
Speaker 1: down or break a window, and exit the vehicle quickly.
Speaker 1: Helping children first, don't call nine one one until after
Speaker 1: you've escaped, because cars again sink quickly. Time is of
Speaker 1: the essence. If you can't get a window open, head
Speaker 1: to the backseat of the car, where water will fill in. Last,
Speaker 1: take a deep breath, and try to get a door
Speaker 1: open once the pressure is equalized. It's scary to think
Speaker 1: that you might need to prepare for an incident that
Speaker 1: traps you in your car, but experts do agree that
Speaker 1: it's better to acknowledge the possibility. If you have a
Speaker 1: tool with an easy reach and you have some idea
Speaker 1: of what to do, you'll save crucial seconds that could
Speaker 1: make all the difference. Today's episode is based on the
Speaker 1: article how to Escape a sinking car on how stuffworks
Speaker 1: dot com, written by Scherise three. Whit brain Stuff is
Speaker 1: production of by Heart Radio in partnership with how stuffworks
Speaker 1: dot com and is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more
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