3 softball players missing in N.D.

[Inky_Wretch]

I don't know. There was a 20/20 special once that had what to do if your car is submerged. Even in a small amount of water, the panic that hits usually does people in.

Even in shallow water you can't open the doors. If you can't roll down the windows (electrical short), then you need something to break a window like a hammer, spark plug or one of the tools they now sell.

As I understand it, you can open them once the water pressure inside the car equals the water pressure outside it. That means waiting until the water in the car reaches the same level as outside. So if you're in 10 feet of water, you have to let the water fill up the car before the doors will open. Certainly takes some knowledge and some holding of breath, and you have to overcome panic, but my understanding is that works. It's possible I'm wrong, though. Fortunately, I haven't been in that situation to try it out.

You're right. The panic, however, is the problem.

 

[Chef]

***.

Sad, sad story.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Man. Reading the wire story, and all three were in the car, 12 feet of water, and no one got out?

Something's missing, here.

I thought the same thing. I hope and pray that's not the case.

 

[Simon_Cowbell]

Man. Reading the wire story, and all three were in the car, 12 feet of water, and no one got out?

Something's missing, here.

I thought the same thing. I hope and pray that's not the case.

There was a dog in the mix... plus the driver may have been unconscious.

And, if it was dark... not hard to comprehend for me at all that no one got out.

You can't open a door in 12 feet.

And, if the windows are power windows, and you don't have a punch, you have no way to break that glass and equalize the pressure inside the vehicle with what is outside. Once that is equalized, you can move.

Sometimes, the seatbelts keep you strapped in, too.

 

[JR]

Here's advice on how to escape from a prof who wrote a paper on the subject. First rule. Don't touch the cellphone

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/721068--how-to-get-out-of-a-sinking-car?bn=1

Bottom line, you have to remember four words," Giesbrecht said. "Seatbelts. Children. Windows. Out."

All the vehicles in Giesbrecht's study floated before they sank. Float times varied between 30 seconds and two minutes. Giesbrecht advises you use this time to first undo your own seatbelt, undo those of any children in the vehicle, open the driver-side window and escape, first pushing children out ahead of you.

 

[TigerVols]

2 dear friends of mine, a married couple aged 80, died around Christmas Day 1984 when they drove into a river that had flooded a road in rural Tennessee. I was with another elderly couple and all 5 of us were conducting a bird count and our friends had gone out at 4 in the morning to find a barred owl and inadvertently drove into the river. They were found about an hour later, at sun up.

We didn't yet know what happened when they didn't show up for our planned lunch at a restaurant around 11 a.m. that morning. The minor consolation we found in the whole episode was that they died together, as they were the most loving couple I've still ever met, and the idea of one outliving the other would be unthinkable. And for what it's worth, they did have in their flooded records in their car a check mark next to the barred owl entry.

 

[playthrough]

Here's advice on how to escape from a prof who wrote a paper on the subject. First rule. Don't touch the cellphone

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/721068--how-to-get-out-of-a-sinking-car?bn=1

Bottom line, you have to remember four words," Giesbrecht said. "Seatbelts. Children. Windows. Out."

All the vehicles in Giesbrecht's study floated before they sank. Float times varied between 30 seconds and two minutes. Giesbrecht advises you use this time to first undo your own seatbelt, undo those of any children in the vehicle, open the driver-side window and escape, first pushing children out ahead of you.

It's Monday morning quarterbacking of the worst kind, I know, but these girls were on their cellphones in a sinking car? Tragic.

 

[buckweaver]

It's Monday morning quarterbacking of the worst kind, I know, but these girls were on their cellphones in a sinking car? Tragic.

I gotta imagine they almost certainly had no idea what to do. "Call for help" is not an unreasonable reaction in an emergency.

 

[RickStain]

It's been nicer than normal for this time of year, but they would have been in trouble even if they got out of the car.

Soaking wet in freezing water at nighttime and a long way from town with no cell phone is *not* a good position to be in around here. Looking at google maps, they might have been near some sort of rural subdivision, but still not chances I'd want to take.

 

[Blitz]

Very sad story.