Just to clear things up. I was the diver. The knife was a standard dive knife and was not a specific rescue tool as would be normally used on a vehicle accident on land. It is hard to mound a window punch on a BC. They are either too big or too small . If it is too big, it is in the way for the majority of your dives. if it is too small, such as what people are describing here, the spring-loaded type, it becomes too small to even handle with gloves on or in this situation, hand motor skills become limited due to the cold. It was a 3" fixed blade with clip-in sheath. It stated "stainless steel" on the blade. I don't have this knife anymore. It is at the bottom of the river. We are currently searching for an adequate knife to replace it and the others on our dive equipment.
The problem here, and what i've noticed while shopping for replacements, is that dive knives are flimsy. I always suspected this and requested a window punch while en route to the call in case the knife did fail to break the glass. I am looking for stronger, non-flexing knives. These would probably work fine but redundant is always good. There will always be a back-up option readily available.
Other factual inaccuracies on peoples posts I wanted to clear-up:
1. It was a fully submerged vehicle, not partially as suspected by one poster.
2. It came as a dive call and I was in a dive dry-suit.
3. The timing being reported is accurate to the best of my knowledge. We are a rapid-response team and train for this. I can be on air and water ready in less than two minutes. There is nothing we can do about drive time to a call.
4. There are only a few documented calls like this in the world. Drownings happen fast.
Hope this helps.
Jonas
