Today’s car windows are mostly laminated and almost unbreakable.
Imagine you are in a situation where your car veers off the road and falls into a lake or some pond, you are still awake, only unfortunately the car is submerged in water.
You remain calm and try to reach for the little red hammer hanging by the window, repeatedly banging on the glass next to the driver’s seat. Cracks begin to appear but do not break no matter how hard you try. It’s too late to find a way to open the door and you’re stuck in your car.
This story may sound scary, but according to research, it’s actually more common than you might think. Part of the reason for that is because many car windows manufactured today no longer use tempered glass , instead switching to laminated glass for other reasons. safe. Another reason is that the quality of some glass breakers is not as advertised.
Think about choosing an emergency tool.
Until recently, the majority of glass used for car windows was only single-layer tempered glass. If you still don’t know what tempered glass for cars is, this material is processed so that when broken, it will create countless small glass particles instead of sharp shards, endangering the occupants of the car. . That’s still standard on most vehicles today, but manufacturers are increasingly preferring laminated glass – which has been used in windshields for decades – because of its shatter resistance. in the event of a collision.
This feature is essential because the investigation parameters have shown that a large number of drivers and passengers are ejected from the vehicle in accidents. Experts are changing the standards to try to solve the problem. If the glass did not break, the unfortunate incident above would not have happened.
Unfortunately, the side effect is that in an urgent situation where the glass needs to be broken to get out, the laminated glass is too strong .
So if the car uses laminated glass, how should it be handled? According to research, the rear window can still be made of tempered glass, but it’s best to check your car first. Otherwise, in a flooded situation, you need to quickly slide the window down as quickly as possible before the pressure of the water stops you from doing so.
What if the car is still using standard tempered glass? Think about choosing an emergency tool . Usually there are two options. The first is the very popular hammer. This tool is usually compact, covered with light-colored plastic, with a sharp steel tip for breaking glass.
Another type of tool is a spring-loaded pin that presses against the glass to break it. This type is pretty awesome because it doesn’t depend on you being able to use a hammer and doesn’t require too much arm strength.
The researchers tested six emergency tools, three types of hammers and three types of springs. Only four of the above tools can break tempered glass and none of them can break laminated glass. The study also showed that the spring-loaded type was more effective in testing tempered glass.