[chris1993]

My wife's cousin almost died from heat-stroke in her drive-way when her car trapped her inside the vehicle in full Australian summer sun because the battery failed while she was inside checking something. Doors and windows wouldn't open. Nobody heard her calls because the new car had good sound-proofing. She eventually managed to crawl through the panel behind the back seat to get into the boot (luckily she's quite petite) and get a tyre lever and smash a side-window so she could call out to a neighbour for help.

[brokenmachine]

It's too late now for her of course, but you can take the headrest off the seat and use the metal prongs to smash the windows to get out.

[mauvehaus]

Having watched a burly firefighter take three good swings with an axe to bust out a window (to get to the hood release of an unattended car fire), I am extremely skeptical of this claim.

Somebody on YouTube tested those emergency hammers and concluded they're basically useless. If you really want to break a tempered glass car window (I.e., any of them but the windshield), their recommendation was an automatic center punch.

[aaaaaaaaaaab]

You’re supposed to do it like this: https://youtu.be/tZTa8Nh0VlE

[senortumnus]

This reminds me of the spark plug ceramic demos. Little ceramic tip on a spark plug (isolated from the rest of the plug) make an effective car window smashing projectile. No idea if it would work from inside the car / if you could get enough speed on it sitting right next to the window!

https://www.reddit.com/r/mythbusters/comments/130js6/breakin...

[ayemiller]

Technically it's not the tip of a spark plug, but a shard of the ceramic insulator when shattered- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninja_rocks

[brokenmachine]

So they crush a spark plug to get the "rocks"? How?

[jes]

Right. As a firefighter, I carried a spring-loaded center-punch in the pocket of my bunker coat. No muss, no fuss. Just put the tip on a side window and press until it fires.

[kingcharles]

Watch this... this made me realize how tough car windows really are:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L91_K-s4pMM

[mlindner]

He's hitting the base of the window with a blunt object. You don't want a blunt object.

[djmips]

Windshield even more so.

[kQq9oHeAz6wLLS]

I believe your windshield is an integral part of your car's rollover protection

[mywittyname]

The Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards have a lot to say on the strength, composition, and properties of glass in passenger vehicles. In addition to being very difficult to break, it must also be resistant to shattering and remain in place while experiencing some pretty extreme forces.

Automotive glass is not even glass really, it's more of a composite made up of layers of various transparent materials all designed to counter balance the weaknesses of the other layers. And windshields are bonded into the body of the vehicle with a very strong plastic adhesive.

[fdjsafdsjl]

Depends if you are trying to break the window from the inside or the outside. It's very difficult from the outside, and much easier from the inside (I cracked my windscreen and needed a replacement, because I was carrying a long piece of wood and it moved a little and contacted the windscreen).

[mauvehaus]

Two things:

1) Are you me? I've done exactly this because I knew that my car fit a 10' board. Turns out when you're buying rough lumber 10' sometimes means 10' 2".

2) The windshield is laminated glass instead of tempered. It'll crack much more easily, but it'll (more or less) stay in one piece in the frame instead of shattering out into a million tiny bits.

[mlindner]

> Having watched a burly firefighter take three good swings with an axe to bust out a window (to get to the hood release of an unattended car fire), I am extremely skeptical of this claim.

Wrong window. You're talking about the windshield which is a completely different type of glass than other windows.

[mauvehaus]

He was trying to break the side window. Tempered glass is super tough, until you damage the outer layer. Presumably the pick end of his fire axe wasn't sharp or hard enough to scratch that outer layer without a hell of a swing behind it.

[boppo1]

I have heard keeping a shattered sparkplug inyour car can help. Something about them auto-shatters glass.

[Aloha]

I've carried a hatchet in my car for years for this reason.

[nyolfen]

breaking the windshield is the cheapest option to replace

[notJim]

Also in the "too late" vein, at least in the US, I believe cars are still required to have a latch to open the trunk from the inside. Not sure if other countries have these.

[yumraj]

Serious question: So why are all the people who are trapped/kidnapped in the cars in the movies not able to come out and have to yell to have someone come and rescue them?

That implies that there is no way to open the latch from inside and people, including me, may take that as the truth and not even try to find the latch. I for sure didn't know that there was a way.

[notJim]

For some reason, the law requires the latch to be removed if the car is in a movie ;)

[dylan604]

The only person in the movies I'm aware of that went to jail for breaking the laws for removing tags was Pee-wee Herman.

However, I'm truly shocked that someone asked "how come in a movie...".

[yumraj]

> However, I'm truly shocked that someone asked "how come in a movie...".

I know it sounds stupid to even ask that, but my question/concern came from that for someone who is not aware of such a thing, after watching movies I would have never even thought to look for it had I ever been in such a situation. Referring to also the story above about the women who was stuck in the car.

So, if all is true, then the movies in this case are doing a serious disservice. I know sounds naive and stupid to even ask that but most things function mostly as they do in real life, this to me seemed an odd exception.

[zerocount]

It's too dark to search for it, so you'd have to already know where the latch is at. I didn't know about keyless trunks until my ex-wife needed a jump and the battery was in the trunk, which could only be opened electronically or with the 'latch.' Google to the rescue!

[dghlsakjg]

All of the inner latches I’ve seen are made of glow in the dark material.

[jstarfish]

Most of the vehicles I've seen used for this purpose in movies are Oldsmobiles and such from the 70s-- long before the latches were a requirement. Modern car trunks are also way smaller than older sedans, which don't lend themselves to human transport.

If you're ever in the trunk of a moving vehicle, do what you can to sabotage the brake lights-- the wires are usually accessible and it increases the chances of attracting police attention.

[vbezhenar]

I don't know about US, but in my country many cars (most?) are equipped with child safety switches for back doors. It's accessible when door is open (it's on door's inner edge) and if it's locked, you can't open door inside. It's needed to prevent children from accidentally opening doors, but you can use this feature for kidnapping purposes.

Of course you can always open front doors.

[pomian]

because their hands are tied.

[yumraj]

Not in all cases..

[elzbardico]

As far as I know this is widely disseminated across the world.

[holoduke]

Front windshield is easy to brake from the inside. A gentle push with your feet will crack it. Some harder kicks will remove it for sure.

[zerocount]

Yep, not much more than moulding holding it in.

[cabalamat]

Have you actually tried this?

[forgotmyoldname]

Some cars (including mine) have a seat that’s just one unified unit. No way to remove it.

[elzbardico]

if you can get inside the boot you can open it, no need to break the windows. It is a shame this is not more widely know.

[hansthehorse]

That happens here in Florida. Older person drives into a canal and the window motors short out they are trapped.

[sizzle]

Don’t all cars have the trunk pull release by law?

[selimthegrim]

The horn depending on the battery is frightening

[quesera]

I'm having trouble envisioning an alternative power source for the horn.

Compressed air maybe, recharged by electric motor when available. Sounds like a reliability problem to me though.

[zerocount]

Why? I've only used my horn for telling people to get off their phone and go because the light turned green. I can't remember it ever being a necessity.