You're driving home one night, your mind idling
as you cruise along the highway. You can't help but think of the weird news
reports you've been seeing lately- apparently people have been spotting a strange creature
around town. It's being described as a tall, lanky being
with huge, red eyes, and most shocking of all, it apparently flies! You vaguely recall hearing about something
similar way back in the 60s, in a town called... Point Decent? Point Comfortable? Something like that. And the creature, what was it called? Birdman? Batman? Butterflyman? You honestly can't remember. Then you find yourself stopped in traffic
behind a few other cars on a long, worn out bridge. There's some kind of traffic jam up ahead
but you can't see it. As you sit in your car you suddenly remember:
the town was called Point Pleasant, and the creature was the Mothman. The legendary predictor of automobile doom! With a chill running up your spine, it suddenly
happens- the aging bridge gives way with a creak and a groan and your car is suddenly
plummeting to the icy cold river below! Guess you should've paid more attention to
urban legends, but now you've got bigger fish to fry, and in a few seconds that's going
to be a literal statement. So your town has been haunted by a mythical
creature warning of impending doom and now you're stuck in a rapidly sinking car because
local authorities failed to heed the dire warnings. How are you going to survive? Well first you'll be relieved to hear that
Mothman was almost certainly misidentified barn owls and overactive imaginations. You might be less relieved to hear that infrastructure
in America is so poorly maintained that just over 56,000 bridges all across the nation
are structurally deficient. While that doesn't mean they are in danger
of immediate collapse, some are in incredibly poor repair and in dire need of maintenance. Unfortunately budget priorities have historically
gone elsewhere, though the good news is that the number of structurally deficient bridges
has been steadily, and slowly shrinking for the past few years. What if today is your unlucky day though,
and you find yourself on one of those structurally deficient bridges who decided that you are
the straw that broke the camel's back, more literally than figuratively in this case. What do you do if trapped in a sinking car? Given the fact that 400 people a year die
from drowning in sinking vehicles, the threat is not particularly great, but you should
always be prepared. The first thing you might be tempted to do
when your vehicle crashes into the water is to immediately call 911. It makes good sense, as you've likely been
trained your whole life to immediately call emergency services in case of disaster. You also won't be in very immediate danger
because cars can actually take around 30 seconds to a minute to start fully submerging, thanks
to all of the trapped air across the vehicle keeping the car afloat. Yet that's time you should not be spending
calling 911, because when your car is sinking you've got precious little time to waste. Gordon Geisbrecht from the University of Manitoba
trains law enforcement officers and others on escaping from vehicles under water, and
he said about calling 911, “If you touch your cell phone you're probably going to die.” No, that's not because your cell phone will
literally kill you, but because you'll be wasting precious time you could be using to
escape. Better to simply wait until you've safely
left your vehicle before calling 911- after all, what use will 911 be to you when you've
already been drowning for ten minutes before anyone shows up? In this case, it's you on your own, mano-a-mano
with the water trying to kill you. The second thing you should do is, and we
checked carefully on various survival websites, but unbuckle yourself from your seat belt. Listen, we know this is common sense, but
every single website we searched literally listed this as a step, so who are we to argue? Plus our writer who had undergone 'dunking'
survival training, or how to escape from a sinking helicopter, also attests to the fact
that even in survival training unbuckling your seat belt was a listed step. We guess that in the heat of the moment you
might panic, and so having a handy-dandy survival checklist can be a lifesaver. The next step is to not do the exact thing
you're probably thinking about doing- opening the door. You might think that we don't want you to
open the door so that water doesn't rush in and sink your car faster, but we actually
tell you not to open the door because, well, you won't be able to. You're going to have an incredible amount
of water pressure pushing in on the door against you, and we don't care how many Spartan challenges
you've competed in, you are not stronger than water. No human in the world is stronger than thousands
of gallons of water all pressing against the door of a car, so don't bother. Instead you want to roll your window down. Because the water is pushing in, against the
inside of the car, rolling a window down can be done with relative ease while the water
level is low- you're not fighting against the water pressure. Be aware though, that you'll have up to a
minute before the rising water reaches the top of the door, at which point the water
pressure will push the window against the door frame so hard that it'll basically become
impossible to roll down. Of course if you have a modern car with electric
windows, then the circuits will probably fry the moment you hit the water, so you're going
to have to think about alternatives at this point. You can purchase many specialized tools to
help you break car windows in an emergency, such as tools with sharpened steel tips that
can shatter glass with a well-placed blow, or spring-loaded tools that do much the same
thing. Whatever you use, you'll want to make sure
it's within easy reach, because you're burning precious seconds if you're having to dig through
the glove box to find your rescue tool. If you have no tool, then you can try kicking
the window out yourself. Modern car windows are pretty tough stuff,
but with a few well placed kicks you may be able to kick it out of its frame. Whatever you end up doing, just make sure
you do it fast, because as soon as you are fully submerged none of your rescue tools,
or kicking, are going to work to knock that window out of the frame. Next, evacuate children out of the car first. Being smaller and weaker, they are going to
have a harder time getting past the rushing water, so you may have to shove them out the
window. Infants are going to have to be carried out
in your arms. Everyone should be going out of their own
window if at all possible, but if not you may have to shove children through your window
or whichever window was opened up. At this point you'll want to swim for shore. As you make your way out of the window though
try and be mindful of any baggy clothing you may be wearing, as it could get snagged on
various objects. It might even be better to quickly remove
a bulky jacket or other clothing and make sure you don't get hooked and dragged down
to Davy Jones' Locker. If however you have been unable to open a
window before your car started fully submerging, then you still have a chance at survival. First, you're going to want to wait until
the water fully fills the inside of your car. This will equalize the pressure and allow
you to easily open your door and escape that way. Now this is going to mean that you have to
calm yourself down and control your breathing as the car fills with water, admittedly something
that likely won't be easy to do in such a terrifying situation. It's vital you stay calm though, as most people
could easily make the short swim from a sinking car to the surface, but due to panic and stress,
often drown before even getting clear of their vehicle. You'll want to remain calm as the water rises,
taking gradually deeper and deeper breaths as the water level builds. Exhale fully and fill your lungs up completely
for your final breath- the one good thing working in your favor is that the rising water
will compress what air is left in the vehicle, giving you more oxygen in your final breath
than normal. If you can keep your cool and wait the final
few seconds for pressure to equalize, you'll be able to simply pop the door open and make
a swim for it. Our writer who underwent dunking survival
training says that even at the best of times, exiting a sinking helicopter, or vehicle in
this case, can still be terrifying and confusing. You might in fact be so confused in your panic
that you can't tell which way is up, which is why you want to take a moment and if you
have any visibility at all, simply look for bubbles. Then, it's as simple as following the bubbles
up. People will likely have noticed that your
car decided to go on a diving trip, so the good news is that your primary job is to get
clear of the car. At that point even if you pass out from asphyxiation,
you can likely still be rescued and resuscitated in time to save your life. If you remain trapped in your vehicle though
it can take hours to get rescue divers on scene, and unless you've recently grown a
pair of gills, that means you won't be surviving your impromptu road trip to the bottom of
a river. Have you ever had to make your way out of
a sinking vehicle? What would you do if you were in this scenario? Let us know in the comments! And as always if you enjoyed this video don't
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