Sinking Car: Stay Or Go?
By Joe Dominguez
COLORADO SPRINGS – Surviving a car crash into a creek or river could depend on staying in your car. Advice from heavy rescue experts with the Colorado Springs Fire Department is to stay in your car if you are surrounded by moving water.
“Your best chance of survival is for us to get there– get the resources on scene,” says Ian Elliott of CSFD.
Those resources include tools to help get to your car and get you out. Swift water rescue experts tell us they have the equipment and extensive training to handle that kind of situation. Eight experts are on shift at a time and every first responder has the skills to start the rescue process. A new trailer just put into use this year helps rotate in fresh rescuers and divers if needed. Chancing the creek or river water on your own is something not even the pros do unless fully prepared.
“You’ve got rebar, trash, cars, shopping carts anything that can catch you up,” says Elliott. “Even a trained professional can be killed very quickly.”
Southern Colorado’s trained professionals have been called on before. State Troopers told us a driver reaching for a cell phone resulted in a car running off US Highway 24 and into the creek below in 2003. That driver survived.
Just last year a power outage helped create a flood situation near I-25 and 29th street in Pueblo. One SUV sank below the surface and the driver of the car had to get out of the car while it was sinking.
Springs firefighters say in the Pueblo case, where the water is not moving, get out of the vehicle as fast as you can. Carrying a glass puncher found at any auto parts store can help you break a window if you’re sinking. Pros say if you don’t have one, open the window quickly because you never know when your power windows will fail. Springs firefighters say waiting for the pressure outside the car to level out with the pressure inside a sinking car will help you open a door underwater. Other experts say that might not work if the door is damaged or if you run out of air before the pressure stabilizes. They say unbuckling your seatbelt and getting yourself in a position to leave as soon as possible and by any means necessary (through the window, broken windshield or opening a door) is the best advice.
