Three teenagers were killed when their car skidded off the road in southern France, went through a wall and crashed upside down in a private pool, trapping them inside.
The vehicle was a similar size to the pool and the teenagers - aged 14, 15 and 19 - were unable to open the doors and drowned.
Apparently high on nitrous oxide, weed and alcohol. Picture of the pool from the video:
That’s some final destination shit.
Right? Everything had to work out perfectly for that Car to slide off the road at the exact moment and flip into a pool that was the same size as the Car to prevent them from being able to open the doors and also be just deep enough to submerge the entire vehicle without leaving oxygen inside
Fuck. That’s fucking awful.
unable to open the doors and drowned
If you find yourself in a car sinking in water, conserve your energy because the doors will not open until your cabin is submerged. Take a deep breath at the last second that you can (you will need it) and wait until you are fully underwater to try to open the doors. This may not have been possible with the shallowness of the pool in the above news story. There are also specialized tools for breaking car windows that you can keep in your glove compartment for emergencies.
None of this helps you if there are concrete pool walls keeping the doors from opening
There are also specialized tools for breaking car windows that you can keep in your glove compartment for emergencies.
Definitely do this! I have bought these for myself and all of my family members thanks to the Mythbusters car submerging episode and news stories like these.
But also, be aware that they may not work at all on modern cars as many have switched to laminated glass for the side windows. Even Adam Savage has spoken about how this invalidates his recommendations and makes cars less safe in certain circumstances.
https://www.acg.aaa.com/connect/blogs/4c/auto/car-escape-tool-laminated-window-glass
Recently saw this on Lemmy, too. https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/35078257
This is a result of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 226, “Ejection Mitigation” in the US. It doesn’t explicitly require laminated glass, but the requirements it imposes leave basically no alternative.
The article mentioned that the pool was roughly the size of the car and that it would’ve been too snug for them to open the doors.
This is one of those one in 1 trillion situations where everything had to work out exactly for it to happen.
the car was the size of the swimming pool, and upside down, so they had no chance to exit it
Tragic, but also preventable probably:
Unconfirmed reports suggest the youngest of the three victims was at the wheel of the car at the time.
Canisters of nitrous oxide were found in the car, according to French reports. The substance is used by recreational users as it can make people feel relaxed, light-headed or dizzy.
Wtf Does anyone have an idea on how to exit in such a situation?
There likely was no possible way for then to get out of the car. If they wanted to survive, their best bet would have been to not skid off a road and go through a fence.
Maybe through the front or back windshield, but given that the pool and car were of very similar size (diameter), I don’t think there was a way. They were dead the moment they hit the water. They just didn’t know it yet.
It’s very very very unlikely/next to impossiblr that you are able to destroy the front window in a modern car - even with tools that takes time and skill
With a back window you might have more luck,depending on the car,at least with a center punch tool, you might have a better chance - but that requires you to be able to a) be alert and uninjured enough to do so b) find your way there in total darkness, wrong orientation,etc. c) manage to apply the right amount of force.
Source: Am a paramedic,have to destroy windows once a year for our training with the firies, additionally have done “total submersion” training once. (Basically the same as what happend here. You get into a car,this car get spun on the roof, then slid down nto a pool/lake - with the difference that you have space on all sides, there is a rescue diver with you in the car and another two are next to it. It is still a fucking nightmare and MUCH worse than what I used to do to work on the helicopter - their HUET was much easier.
No way! What country is this? That sounds expensive! Any videos of these situations (don’t want you to selfdox too hard if avoidable but maybe it’s nbd depending on the politics of your post history)?
What part do you mean exactly? That we train technical rescue with the firies every year? That comes with the job - and it’s more “their part” - even the smaller volunteer fire departments do that at least once a year to keep up their skills with the heavy tools and we get train to work with them. It’s usually not that expensive either,as they use an old car that wouls be wrecked either way. Often they get them for free (as disposing a car can be expensive otherwise).
The total submersion training? That is much rarer and I only did that once, but it’s part of the training of the more specialist water rescue crews, afaik. The issue here are not the cost,but finding a suitable location - you can’t just use your community pool or nearvx lake so you either have a quarry with a lake or something like that (we did it in a army tank training ground, they have a pool to drive tanks through. Nowadays it’s almost impossible to get a permit to train there due to the hybrid warfare the fucking russkies do) We have a specialist training side that enables indoor training of helicopter based winch rescue from flood water/flooded buildings,etc. though. (Mainly focuses on mountain rescue,though and has a cold chamber,etc. as well) (https://bw-zsa.org/) (https://youtu.be/2qWJNgKVo18)
Similar training of an automobile club: https://youtu.be/T5l1ayTryhc
HUET for helicopter is mandatory for everyone who works with maritime helicopters, e.g. oil rig workers, maritime pilots,etc. Therefore they are fairly common. https://youtu.be/YyPzzLwpzvw
Good to know. I thought windshields were designed to pop off in one piece which is why I thought it’d be a possibility.
They very rarely do these days. Even less when under pressure (e.g. when the car is on it’s roof).
I am a fairly big guy and never managed to do so.
In this case there was no way to exit as the car was upside down in a swimming pool that was the same size
What kind of asshole builds a swimming pool the size of that car
What? Lol. Swimming / lap pools are popular
At that point it’s just a hole with water in it.
It can still be long…
Like some sort of… Pool… Of water
Canisters of nitrous oxide were found in the car, according to French reports. The substance is used by recreational users as it can make people feel relaxed, light-headed or dizzy.
So? NOX doesn’t give teens the ability to flip cars into.perfectly car sized pools, nor does it justify a death sentence. They could have been sober and on a way to a party, or something. What a bullshit thing to include in the article.
It’s odd that this should need to be pointed out, but allow me help. The line was added to suggest it is a possible DUI. Driving under the influence of drugs is generally recognized as a contributing factor to accidents.
