On 03/06/2021 12:39, Pancho wrote:

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-derbyshire-57335740

A vet has drowned in her car.

Astonishingly in my car there appears no way to get out from inside if it is locked and/or the electrics are off.

Apparently the answer is to have a device to break the side door glass.

I was looking at:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wupettier-Portable-Window-Breaker-Seatbelt/dp/B08MFBZ2GV/ref=psdc_2481712031_t1_B08XNRVC3G

or

https://www.amazon.co.uk/AmazonBasics-Emergency-Cutter-Window-Hammer/dp/B073J92G1J/ref=psdc_2481712031_t3_B00K63TG9C

Do they work?, my gut feeling is the hammer would be best.

I don't know if they work, but the one I got some years ago looks identical to the second of these. It fits neatly on the floor near the back of the footwell. It also looks similar to the hammers that used to be provided on many trains and long-distance buses, so I guess the transport authorities tested them at some point. My wife was not entirely persuaded that this was something we ought to have, but they don't cost much. Since most modern cars lock the doors automatically when you start moving and have electric windows, if you didn't realise that you were in a flood until after the battery stopped being able to power the locks and windows, you could just possibly find that smashing a window was the only way out.

Having read the story too, I suspect this unfortunate vet might have been a victim of a satnav: the road seems a really tiny lane barely wide enough for one car not leading anywhere much but could perhaps have been chosen as a short-cut by a badly programmed sat-nav unit. I wish that satnavs had an option to specify "don't take stupid short-cuts to save a few seconds of time".


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Clive Page