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
Fuck. That’s fucking awful.
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.
I have sympathy for teenagers making stupid mistakes.
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.
This particular manner of death is one in a trillion. The odds that these three were going to die in a car together was quite a bit closer to parity.
Wtf Does anyone have an idea on how to exit in such a situation?
Well those kids were uniquely screwed. But I figure in a sinking car scenario, the best bet is to immediately roll down the windows. Even better to have manual windows so there’s no risk of automatic windows failing. I have that drilled into my brain, for let’s say I’m driving a car rental and by some freak accident fall off a cliff edge. Fuck waiting for the pressure to equalize, by then who knows how deep I’d be and I don’t trust how long I could hold my breath for.
Roll. Down. The. Windows!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
At that point it’s just a hole with water in it.
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.
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.
It does add some context as to why they crashed. The fact that the youngest child was driving is another.
Doesn’t make them deserving of such an end, however the freakish nature of it is somebody diminished. It would be somewhat more tragic had they decided to adhere to basic road safety precautions.
