Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren Volga Bomb Here. Have you ever considered what would
Speaker 1: happen if you were trapped in your car? What if
Speaker 1: you ran off the road into a body of water
Speaker 1: and started to sink? Would you know what to do?
Speaker 1: Would you be able to break a window to escape?
Speaker 1: Those questions are the heart of a study released in
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen by the American Automobile Association or Triple A.
Speaker 1: The report actually looks at the different types of glass
Speaker 1: in a car and how that glass can affect your
Speaker 1: chances of escape. If you had to break a window
Speaker 1: to get out, you might not know it, but the
Speaker 1: glass for your car's windshield might be different from the
Speaker 1: glass and the windows. Some might be tempered glass and
Speaker 1: some might be laminated glass. Eliminated glasses designed not to
Speaker 1: break even in a crash to decrease the odds that
Speaker 1: someone in the car will be ejected. And that matters
Speaker 1: because if you need to get out in an emergency,
Speaker 1: you might not be able to even using car escape
Speaker 1: tools designed to help you. The Triple A study showed
Speaker 1: that most car escape tools were effective at breaking tempered glass,
Speaker 1: but not laminated glass. In fact, none of the tools
Speaker 1: tested in the study were able to completely break through
Speaker 1: laminated glass. A few were effective at spider webbing the
Speaker 1: glass only. An increasing number of new vehicles have switched
Speaker 1: from using tempered side glass windows to laminated side glass windows,
Speaker 1: as many as one in three vehicles. That's in response
Speaker 1: to federal safety standards. However, most cars that have primarily
Speaker 1: laminated glass also have at least one window made of
Speaker 1: tempered glass. According to Triple A, each of a car's
Speaker 1: windows should have a sticker in the bottom corner that
Speaker 1: indicates the glass type. If you can't find it, you
Speaker 1: can contact your vehicles manufacturer and ask. Furthermore, just because
Speaker 1: the study shows that car escape tools aren't always effective
Speaker 1: doesn't mean you shouldn't have one in your car. On
Speaker 1: the contrary, we spoke by email with Greg Brannan, triple As,
Speaker 1: director of Automotive Engineering and Industry Relation. He said Triple
Speaker 1: A recommends a spring loaded style tool, as we found
Speaker 1: that some of the hammer tools we tested broke when
Speaker 1: impact in the glass. Keep in mind that any tool
Speaker 1: you select will only be effective for breaking tempered glass.
Speaker 1: These tools are also especially useful in case your seatbelt
Speaker 1: release doesn't work. Some car escape tools incorporate blades that
Speaker 1: let you quickly and safely slice your seatbelt rather than
Speaker 1: fumbling with a buckle that might not open. Spring loaded
Speaker 1: style tools contain an inner mechanism that consists of a
Speaker 1: sharp spike that can be deployed with enough force to
Speaker 1: break a tempered glass window thanks to a coiled spring.
Speaker 1: After you buy such a tool, you should test it
Speaker 1: on the surface of a notepad or piece of soft wood.
Speaker 1: You'll hear a click, and when you remove the device
Speaker 1: from the surface, you'll see an indented hole, meaning that
Speaker 1: the device works. Online demonstrations can also help you familiarize
Speaker 1: yourself with how to use the tool just in case.
Speaker 1: Now for the scary part. If you get into an
Speaker 1: accident where you must escape your car, especially if it's
Speaker 1: in in water, what do you do. Make sure you
Speaker 1: know what type of glass your car's driver side window has.
Speaker 1: If it's laminated, know that you will need to escape
Speaker 1: through a different window if it won't roll down. If
Speaker 1: your car has all laminated glass, it's critical to get
Speaker 1: a window rolled down as quickly as possible. The experts
Speaker 1: we talked to all recommended the sure method as an
Speaker 1: easy way to remember what to do in the event
Speaker 1: of such an emergency. That's sure s stay calm, you
Speaker 1: unbuckle your seatbelt or cut if it's jammed, are roll
Speaker 1: down or break the windows and e exit the vehicle
Speaker 1: quickly and help children out first. Don't call nine one
Speaker 1: one until after you've escaped. You can have a matter
Speaker 1: of seconds until water rises to the bottom of the
Speaker 1: passenger windows, so time is of the essence. It's scary
Speaker 1: to think that you might need to prepare for an
Speaker 1: incident that traps you in your car, but experts agree
Speaker 1: that it's better to acknowledge the possibility. If you have
Speaker 1: a tool with an easy reach, and you have some
Speaker 1: idea of what to do, you'll save crucial seconds that
Speaker 1: could make the difference between escaping from your car or not.
Speaker 1: Today's episode was written by Saris three Wit and produced
Speaker 1: by Tyler Clain. Brain Stuff is production of I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio's How Stuff Works. For more in this and lots
Speaker 1: of other emergency preparedness topics, visit our home planet, how
Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com and for more podcasts. For my
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Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.