Dangers in flooding are real

On a blustery afternoon, Amanda Carter, 16, of Long Beach was headed home in her SUV. It was Jan. 2. The rain had stopped, but some streets remained slick.

As the Los Alamitos High School student turned onto Studebaker Road from the Garden Grove Freeway, she lost control of her 2000 Jeep Cherokee, skidded through the intersection and plunged into the raging waters of a nearby flood control channel.

It was a chaotic scene. Long Beach police had to hold back bystanders to prevent them from jumping into the murky water to reach the girl. “It was a dangerous situation,” says Sgt. Hans Kohnlein. The vehicle was almost completely submerged. Visibility was poor, the vehicle was unstable and had started drifting. Police and firefighters were unable to open its doors.

At one point, a rear window was broken, but rescuers could not get in. Trapped for about 30 minutes, the teen drowned before rescuers could pull her from the vehicle. Her death is an agonizing reminder of how quickly a person can die once a vehicle becomes submerged.

From 2003 to 2004, 684 people were killed nationwide in accidents involving submerged vehicles, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. During that same period, more than 1,900 people were injured in such accidents.

Although drowning fatalities are minuscule compared with the tens of thousands of motorists killed every year on the nation’s highways, being trapped inside a vehicle is perhaps a driver’s most terrifying experience, says Karen Norris of the National Safety Council in Washington, D.C.

Despite that fear, motorists often have a “false sense of security,” particularly if they drive a large SUV, truck or four-wheel drive vehicle, says Larry Wenzel of the National Weather Service in Maryland. Many drivers believe they are safe even if they drive through flooded streets or dangerous terrain.

“They think, ‘I am in this 3,000-pound-or-more vehicle and even if I get in contact with water, the vehicle is too heavy to float.’ But aircraft carriers weigh 97,000 tons and float,” says Norris, director of the council’s Safety and Health Policy Center.

What they don’t realize is that as little as 6 inches of rapidly moving water can sweep a person off his or her feet and that most vehicles can be swept away in 18 to 24 inches, according to Weather Service data.

Even with the additional 6 to 12 inches of clearance that trucks and SUVs have, the risk remains. Once the vehicle is swept downstream, it will often roll to one side or it may flip over, Norris says. At that point, the occupants have only a few seconds to escape, warns Wenzel of the Weather Service.

The national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that more than half of all flood-related drownings occur when a vehicle is driven into hazardous floodwater. The next highest percentage of such fatalities involves people who have left their vehicles and are walking near floodwaters or into them.

“If the vehicle is totally submerged, you have no choice but to get out of the car. You have to escape,” says Norris.

Norris blames commercials that advertise a vehicle’s ability to drive through water for giving “a small sense of security at best and tragic consequences at worst.”

Making escape even more difficult: If a vehicle is immersed and loses power, there’s a risk the electric door locks and windows will not work, says Norris.

Differences in water pressure inside and outside a submerged vehicle, or structural damage from the accident, can also prevent escape, experts say.

Occupants can attempt to break the windshield and windows, but they may not have the strength if they have been injured in the accident.

Tool kits sold at automotive stores, generally for less than $10, include small hammers for breaking an automobile’s windows to help people escape if doors and windows cannot be opened. The kits also feature a razorblade that allows a car’s occupants to quickly cut themselves out of seat belts.

If panic sets in, the people in a submerging vehicle may also become disoriented and may have difficulty getting out of their seat belts or become entangled in clothing or debris, says Norris.

There is no single answer on what to do if you find yourself in a submerging auto. Whether occupants should attempt to swim to shore depends on the force and depth of the water, whether it is day or night, how close to shore the vehicle is and whether there are any injuries, says Norris.

But clearly, if you are able, call for help on a cellphone, and explain your location and how many people are in the vehicle, she says.

It takes between 30 seconds and two minutes for water to reach a sinking vehicle’s side window, according to preliminary research released recently by a professor at the University of Manitoba. The professor, Gordon Giesbrecht, a cold weather expert, says that could be enough time for up to three people to escape a sinking vehicle.

Giesbrecht also reported that electric windows should work for up to two minutes after a vehicle makes contact with the water.