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:
Geez. Good thing they weren’t using the pool at the time.
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
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.
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.
Well, it appears that they were doing drugs and letting the 14 year old drive.
That’s still to be confirmed, but the articles states there were empty NO2 cans in the car and due to positions it looks like the 14 year old was driving.
But if you are going to be driving around on drugs, I don’t have sympathy for you.
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.
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 kind of asshole drives high on nitrous oxide, weed and alcoho
The story notes that the pool was near in size to the car. That would mean that, regardless of water pressure, you wouldn’t be able to open the doors. My next try would be the windows but it’s possible that it was such a tight fit that they wouldn’t be able to get out the windows either.
My next option would be to pull down the back seat, exit into the trunk, and use the interior trunk release to exit the trunk. However, that also may not have worked, depending on whether the car’s weight was on the trunk (preventing you from exiting the trunk), or whether there was enough room along the back or sides of the trunk (preventing you from making your way to the surface).
My final option would be to try to kick out the windshield and exit there. I’m sure many people would try it earlier; my assumptions are that the weight of the engine would be holding the front of the car closer to the bottom of the pool; that momentum carried the front of the car close to/into the edge of the pool, limiting space to exit that way; that front airbags may make the exit awkward; and that a possibly shattered windshield and crumpled front of the car make exiting through the windshield a more dangerous route.
Other than those options, I’m not sure what you could do.
they finished upside down in a small swimming pool, so really no way out
I don’t think there is a trunk release inside french cars
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
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.
People are always looking to blame anyone but the pool. If we don’t hold them accountable, they won’t stop.
