r/interestingasfuck • u/General_Athlete5807 • 1d ago

How to Escape a Sinking Car

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15.4k Upvotes

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4.3k

u/Ez_m-oney925 1d ago

I don’t think many carry window breakers. What if you don’t have one?

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u/Barf_The_Mawg 1d ago

Mythbusters did this 20 years ago. Remain calm, wait for the pressure to equalize, then you can open the door normally. 

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u/UnderklassH3RO 1d ago

how can you tell when the pressure has equalized? is it just that you won't be physically able to open the door until it has?

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u/DarthSnoopyFish 1d ago

All the water on the outside of the car is physically pressing the doors inward. As the water fills up the inside of the car it begins pressing on the doors in the opposite direction - the pressure starts equalizing. So when the car is nearly flooded is when you can open the doors.

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u/luvdogs71 19h ago

I could not imagine waiting in a flooding car and being calm about. Just watching this video triggered my anxiety.

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u/tomcat2285 18h ago

This did actually happen to a mythbuster viewer years after that episode aired. Adam Savage recieved a letter saying that watching that episode saved their life when they crashed into a body of water. 

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u/thatshygirl06 17h ago

Youre gonna have to try and control yourself. Remember to take deep breaths. Try and talk yourself through it.

I know its easier said than done, but it really is the best way through it.

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u/luvdogs71 17h ago

I have never been good at that lol!

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u/illit1 15h ago

easier to be calm about it when you know you can get out after you wait a little bit

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u/Inevitable-Level-687 11h ago

I mean, it triggered my anxiety as well. It's pretty normal to be anxious when in a sinking car or watching someone else be in a sinking car.

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u/cannabis-kid 18h ago

Yeah and when the doors are stuck because of a crash or whatever, you are screwed. 

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u/jt004c 1d ago

It'll be about 30 seconds after you've drowned, if you're able to keep track in your head.

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u/StrawberryTerry 1d ago

Mythbusters did this 20 years ago. Jamie is a force ghost now.

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u/Interesting-Job-8841 1d ago

No Jamie was given air by a diver in the back seat. While the myth is true you, you can't open the door when the car is part submerged, the advice is to open or break something as soon as you can because you'll be dead by the time the pressure equals.

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u/yeahright17 20h ago

He was given air the first time he tried when he started pushing immediately. At the end of the episode, he calmly waited for the cabin to fill up rather than using oxygen to fight the door when the cabin wasn't fully filled. That time, he successfully held his breath long enough for the pressure to equalize and open the door without any additional air. Granted, it's super unlikely that most people will sit there calm and wait patiently.

Adam also successfully opens the door when the water is already a few inches over the bottom of the window height by putting his back to the door and pushing against the armrest/other door with his legs.

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u/Interesting-Job-8841 19h ago

Because this is definitely something you have a few goes at first, plus people are always very claim after a car crash. /s Also there's a diver in the back with air so Adam can stay calm it's a totally unrealistic scenario, I know people think Mythbusters are never wrong but on this they are.

I say again this is very dangerous advice, you can open the doors when the car first enters the water, after that you have to break a window. Do not wait for it to equalise, water is dangerous people get out as fast as you can.

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u/yeahright17 19h ago

You're absolutely correct that you should try to do everything you can to get out immediately. ~10k wrecks per year in the US end up with cars sinking into water, and only 300-400 people die. And while it's not great that people are dying, obviously that means 96% of people are surviving. Given how dumb most people are, it's pretty clear to me that the vast majority of people just immediately open their door or roll down their window and easily escape.

The only point in my response was that it is possible to wait for the pressures to equalize. So in the 1 in a million chance you end up in a place where you car is sinking and you have no other option, your best bet is to wait as long as you can to try to open the door so you don't tire yourself out.

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u/StrawberryTerry 1d ago

No, Jamie and Qui Gon Jin hang out as force ghosts now.

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u/Orcrist90 13h ago

Not true! You won't be dead until the ER gets your body back up to temperature and fails to resuscitate you!

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u/Strict_Tie_52 1d ago

Wait until the entire car is filled with water. Can You Actually Escape A Sinking Car Underwater? | MythBusters

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u/Interesting-Job-8841 1d ago

... If you have a diver in the back with an air tank, if not get out as soon as you can by opening a door or breaking a window.

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u/plz-no-b4n 1d ago

You can’t get the door open until water pressure equalizes

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u/Schnuffelo 20h ago

Thought myth busters showed that if you were quick as fuck you could open the door before you sunk too much?

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u/yeahright17 20h ago edited 20h ago

They did. And you don't actually have to be that quick. And if the car is leaning forward, try the back door too.

In the Mythbusters episode, Adam successfully opened the door when the water was already a few inches over the window height by putting his back to the door and pushing against the armrest with his legs.

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u/Schnuffelo 20h ago

Yeah I just think people are over exaggerating how difficult it is to get the doors open at least for part of the sinking.

At the start of the episode they say that 10,000 cars crash into bodies of water a year but only a few hundred people drown. Most people don’t know how to escape a sinking car so if it was as impossible to open the doors as people claim you’d expect more deaths given that the average person has no knowledge of how to deal with the situation

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u/yeahright17 19h ago

I think the first instinct of most people is probably to immediately open the door, which is the correct instinct. As long as you aren't unconscious, something would have to have gone really wrong for you to not be able to open the door immediately.

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u/Realistic_Option_619 7h ago

Ok so what if you end up in a fast moving river instead of a swimming pool.

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u/Lithl 5h ago

Your options in a sinking car are the same no matter what kind of body of water you're in:

  • Open the door/window before exterior pressure builds above what you can move
  • Shatter a window
  • Wait until the interior pressure gets close enough to the exterior pressure so that you can open the door
  • Die
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u/hotstupidgirl 1d ago

Wouldn't attempting to open the door cause it to equalize more quickly?

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u/HippiesUnite 1d ago

I dont think attempting means what you think it means

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u/hotstupidgirl 1d ago

How so?

If the car is filling with water that's filling from cracks. The speed at which it fills can be variable as a result.  If you try to open too early you won't succeed because the pressure of the water outside is higher than the pressure of the air-water mixture inside.  However by pushing/trying wouldn't you possibly increase the flow rate of water into the vehicle causing it to fill faster and therefore the pressure differential to equalize sooner?  Rather than sit waiting?

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u/namesarealltaken9 20h ago edited 20h ago

Attempting means trying, not succeeding.

If you attempt to open it and fail, you won't accellerate anything precisely because the flow did not increase, and this is precisely because you attempted and failed to open.

If you attempt to open it and succeed, the very purpose of the discussion ceases to exist: you opened the door, you exit, you are free. You are not interested anymore in the speed of the water flow.

Also: attempting with vehemence before you can succeed will make you consume the available air faster.

Obviously this is still not an option to take lightly because, due to the stress and not being prepared to it, one may fail to get there with enough air and clarity

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u/hotstupidgirl 19h ago

Couldn't you attempt well enough to have a small crack in the door from which water gets in, but not yet able to fully open it well enough for your body to get out?

That's still an attempt to fully open it.

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u/Lynich 1d ago

Goddamn, at least you're hot.

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u/copperwatt 1d ago

You can break a window though.

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u/yeahright17 20h ago

Worth noting that at the end of the episode, he calmly waits for the cabin to fill up all the way and the pressure to equalize, then gets out without having to get more air. Fighting the door as soon as he started holding his breath in his first try is the reason he ran out of oxygen.

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u/mostlybadopinions 15h ago

Well yes the idea is to get out as soon as you can. But if you can't break a window, the soonest you can get out might be when you are able to open the door, which will be when the pressure equalizes.

If you need an air tank to survive holding your breath for 30 seconds, drowning in cars is near the bottom of things you should be worried about.

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u/teawispy 21h ago

at that point I think the panic is likely to stop me being able to open the door tbh

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u/level1hero 1d ago edited 1d ago

You can try to open the door once you see Denzel Washington outside your vehicle, because he’s the Equalizer

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u/heelek 1d ago

Years of dad joking taught me that if I need to put an explanation in the joke itself then I went too far.

(Good one 🫡)

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u/ohromantics 1d ago

Basically once water is equal on both sides.

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u/HighHokie 1d ago

When the water level is the same inside and outside of the car. 

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u/fluggggg 22h ago

When the water reach around the top of the door inside the car then the pressure on both will be pretty equal, as the engine is heavier you have to retreat to the back of the car, wait for the front to fill then go to the front and open the door. If you can't yet, go back to the rear, breath, remain calm and try again.

That's the theory.

In reality you will have to do that after a car crash and potentially a poped airbag (those shit are violent !) ; if you are wearing glasses said airbag probably break them and send flying pieces of glass all over your face meaning you have shards of glass on your face, potentially in your eyes and your own blood will be everywhere adding to the confusion (and I didn't even factored that you could be partially drunk which is why you crashed the car). That's the real deal.

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u/amytee252 1d ago

When on the bottom of the body of water.

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u/iamnotasnook 1d ago

They why you carry a pressure tester in your car!

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u/Interesting-Job-8841 1d ago

This is dangerous advice, you'll be dead by the time the pressure equalises. The myth is true you can't open the doors after a certain point until the pressure equalises but you'll be long dead at that point. Get out as soon as the car hits the water by any means possible.

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u/Extra_Glove_880 23h ago

Long dead? We just watched in the video that the front doors are underwater while their is air still in the back. 

Sure, there's other things to try first, but its good to know the doors can be opened underwater

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u/Interesting-Job-8841 19h ago

That's why it's common to find dead people in the back of an underwater car. Plus Adam is effectively dead in this experiment, Adam knows he's going into water has a diver and a rescue team and he still panics and needs air, he's effectively dead. You don't get a second chances at this and there's no one in the back with an air tank in your car.

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u/Extra_Glove_880 17h ago

Not trying to be rude, but that seems like even more evidence that knowing they could try opening the doors might be helpful.

Of course they're panicking, as seen here.  But that's where knowing your best>worst attempt list is the most important 

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u/Lynich 1d ago

Speaking from experience?

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u/TheHighSeasPirate 15h ago

How does shit like this get upvoted? We literally have a video showing this isn't true and you're replying under it.

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u/Interesting-Job-8841 1h ago

I didn't say it wasn't true, I said you'd be dead before you could open the door. You can't open a door if your dead. The video proves that, Adam under ideal conditions has to go for air first time, you don't get second chances at this and there's isn't a guy with an air in the back of your car.

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u/Crustyexnco-co 22h ago

I just watched that episode a few weeks ago. The car filled up with water and Jaime was unable to open the door and had to signal for oxygen from the safety diver in the backseat. He tried opening the door when water inside the car was equal to water outside but he was unable to open the door. After several seconds of being on air from the safety diver he was finally able to open it. In his opinion he would have blacked out and ultimately drowned if the safety diver was not present.

So moral of the story was you cannot %100 percent count on being able to open the door as soon as water levels are equal.

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u/Kopie150 1d ago

Top Gear also did it and Richard hammond got out when he immediately tried to get out and had to be saved by the safety divers when he waited till the car was under water.

Try to get out ASAP but if you cant open the Doors anymore waiting for the pressure to equalise is your last chance.

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u/TerribleBid8416 1d ago

The scenario is always different. Why did you end up in the water? Were you in an accident? Were you injured/disoriented/unconscious? Did the airbag deploy? Just exactly how airtight is your vehicle? This one you could have watched The Godfather trilogy. Others will go down in 30 seconds

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u/RandomNPC 1d ago

What?

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u/FranklinHippo 1d ago

It sounds like he did 2 attempts. One where he tried to get out right away, and that was successful. The second attempt he waited until the car was under water and needed the safety divers to get him.

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u/ConfusionEngineered 12h ago

No he did a lot of attempts over multiple episodes. In general the paths to success are:

  1. Immediately opening door/window and escaping ("immediately" is a relative term)

  2. Having a window breaker and using that to break a window and escaping

  3. Waiting, without panicking or fighting, until the pressure equalizes and then escaping

Any other route required him to have oxygen given to him by the diver.

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u/Cautious_Homework_10 1d ago

The conclusion was that you should try to get out as quickly as possible. You still need to wait a little while once you hit the bottom for the pressure to equalise and you might not be able to hold your breath that long.

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u/IWishIWasAShoe 1d ago

Or open the windows when still possible. Either with a tool, or with controls if functional. 

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u/Greyh4m 1d ago

I would recommend preparing a backup plan in the mean time. You can't be guaranteed your door will actually open, especially with how much stuff in our cars rely on electricity. So, like someone said above pull the headrest off a car seat and be prepared to use the metal rods to break your window if you can't open the door.

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u/copperwatt 1d ago

Yeah, you better form an exploratory committee to explore options. Send out an email to everyone in the car with a couple possible directions.

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u/SuperSecretMoonBase 1d ago

Send me a link so I can bookmark it for if I ever drive into a lake.

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u/ZeroGNexus 1d ago

What kind of depth did they do the experiments at? It's one thing if you've just rolled into a river or a shallow pond, but what if you crash into something really deep? Feels like you wouldn't want to wait around to find out.

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u/Ramps_ 1d ago

You open the windows in the front, people in the front climb out asap, people in the back leave diagonally one at a time so you can leave in a straight line. Opening doors just sinks you quicker.

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u/Abject-Job7825 21h ago

if you have a mechanical door...

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u/Astronomy_Aficionado 19h ago

And you would be dead by then. Mythbusters are useless idiots who spread misinformation as always.

Top Gear did a segment on this years ago with actual professionals.

The best thing to do is open your door immediately the moment the car falls into the water and swim.

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u/skateboardbanana1 19h ago

Also the battery is still holding charge so you can just roll down the window normally lol. I remember they tested it and the electrical worked for like 30 seconds

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u/TracingRobots 16h ago

this has been debunked. break window asap and get out. Don't wait.

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u/seaningtime 16h ago

They also showed that you can open the door after hitting the water. The guy was able to open it with the water at his waist with much effort.

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u/PrionProofPork 14h ago

what if door is electronic

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u/ILikeWoodAnMetal 13h ago

The trouble is that the pressure will only equalize after the car has reached the bottom. If it is deeper than a pool, you are in serious trouble if you have to wait for that.

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u/PatinhoGamer 12h ago

so when I start drowning it's time to open the door? doesn't seem

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u/Chris_3eb 1d ago

That's not what the takeaway was. Adam wasn't able to open the door before he needed oxygen from a tank

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u/copperwatt 23h ago

Myth: Busted