Safety Tips Driving safety

Vehicle submersion: Act fast

Vehicle on bridge
Photo: Jeremy Woodhouse/Getty Images

It’s unpleasant to think about, but it happens: Vehicles get submerged in water. If it happened to you, would you know what to do?

The City of Phoenix Fire Department lays out the steps.

First (and most important): Stay calm and unbuckle your seat belt.

Then: “As soon as you hit the water, open your window,” the PFD says. “This is your best chance of escape. Usually, a car will float for a brief amount of time, which should give you enough time to get your seat belt off and then open a window.”

If you can’t get the car's window open, try to break it with your foot, shoulder or a heavy object such as a flashlight.

If the window still won’t open, “you’ll need to wait until the car fills with water before you can open the door.”

Why? “This is because the water pressure pushing on the outside of the car will be too great until it’s equalized.”

Learn more about vehicle submersion at phoenix.gov/fire.

One way to be prepared for this type of emergency is to purchase a tool specially designed to help break your car windows. You can find them online.

Post a comment to this article

Safety+Health welcomes comments that promote respectful dialogue. Please stay on topic. Comments that contain personal attacks, profanity or abusive language – or those aggressively promoting products or services – will be removed. We reserve the right to determine which comments violate our comment policy. (Anonymous comments are welcome; merely skip the “name” field in the comment box. An email address is required but will not be included with your comment.)

Title

Carlos Barrera
September 6, 2024
Thank you for this useful information, at our company we have meetings where we share safety topics. I will be sharing this topic with my team on next meeting. In the case that you can share with me information like this I will be glad also to communicate this with the company on further meetings. regards! Carlos

Title

Name
September 12, 2024
Vehicle manufactures are using more and more laminated glass in doors, especially the front doors. This glass is impossible to break through with your foot, shoulder or a heavy object, even the tool specially designed to help break your car windows won't work. In vehicles with laminated door glass, you will hopefully get the window rolled down and if not, you will have to wait until the door can be opened after the pressure equalizes. First responders need to also be aware that they won't be able to just shatter the glass in these doors to get to an injured or trapped person after an accident.