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Bought the Gerber LMF II for exactly this purpose. Glass breaker, strap cutter, and blade. Not sure I'd use it for anything else, but it seemed perfect for this role.
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The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is available! Price is $250 ea (shipped within CONUS).
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Do you keep any escape tools in your car?
- Thread starter sharpjedi
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I have a M16-12ZER and a Res-Q-Me in my truck. The CRKT has a carbide glass breaker and seat belt cutter built into the flipper.
With 27 days left and only $248 to achieve full funding I think the kickstarter has a pretty good chance of success.
Good for them if they succeed but I agree that it's not novel enough for me to kick $15 their way.
AntDog
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When I'm in a cage, and not on my Harley (which is damn rare), I always have at least one knife on me.
As long as I've got a knife, I have the best seatbelt cutter, and a glass breaker. Ever try it? It works - I guarantee it.
Hold the knife reverse grip in your weak hand, tip against window. Give the butt of the handle a good blow with your strong hand. Window gone!
As long as I've got a knife, I have the best seatbelt cutter, and a glass breaker. Ever try it? It works - I guarantee it.
Hold the knife reverse grip in your weak hand, tip against window. Give the butt of the handle a good blow with your strong hand. Window gone!
AntDog
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Amen brother! If me or especially my family were trapped in a car... NO way would we NOT make it out. Glass breaker or no.
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I have two Benchmade rescue hooks, one located in a center console and another in the large pouch in the back of a front seat. Word of advice, I was hit almost head on last year at about 40 mph and I can tell you everything inside the cabin will go flying about, glove box door blew open and everything up on the visor was scattered about. one of my belt cutters ended up under the passenger seat, without access to it. My knife, clipped to my pocket stayed put.
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Car windows are hard to smash. You need something harder than the glass or you are going to have a tough time.
Failure with a brick.
[video=youtube;NO0onn3dNxs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NO0onn3dNxs[/video]
Success with porcelain shards.
[video=youtube;ArUnuEUd4VU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArUnuEUd4VU[/video]
We need a meme for this. Like one of those motivational posters with a screencap of the incident, the main line reading "Kill it with brick" and the next line reading "no sell."
So when in doubt, throw the toilet at it?
AntDog
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If you saw me trapped, I would hope you'd throw your motorcycle at my window
Oh I would!
:thumbup:
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I'm trying to figure out how my car could ever end up under water ..? I'm not a moron.
OOHH, I like "it could never happen to me" scenarios.
Now, take these with a grain of salt, but every scenario I quote has actually happened, resulting in dead people. Some may not apply (stock pond by the road in AZ - not very likely. )1 - Driving along a road in heavy rain, vehicle hydroplanes, slides off the road into a rain filled, narrow ditch that's filled deeper than car top high. Driver and/ passenger could not doors wide enough to get out. Multiple locations in multiple states - east TX, LA and MA (Ted Kennedy at Chappaquiddick).
2- Driving along the road and, for whatever reason (inattention, texting and driving, dodging a skunk/deer/dog/cow/horse) you drive into a creek or stock pond you happened to be passing. (your body is found 20+ years later when the drought lowers the pond's water level and some one sees your car top). (Taylor Tx - my old home town)
3 - Driving in an unfamiliar area, at night, in bad weather and turn down a lane that just so happens to be a boat ramp - with few exceptions, most cars are not amphibious. (Somewhere in OK,IIRC)
4 - Driving in an urban area during bad weather at night. Go to drive through an underpass and find that the dang thing is full of water because the drains in the curbs have plugged up and you could tell because your lights bounce off the water and it looks just like blacktop. (Houston, Tx)
5. Someone is dumb enough to park a vehicle on a slope pointing at a bluff overlooking a lake, leaves the engine running with a kid inside. Either the transmission slips out of park (known to have happened with some makes/models) or the kid messes with the shift lever. For whichever reason, vehicle rolls down slope, over bluff into water and since no one has a spring punch or fixed blade knife (see AntDog's method above) to pop the window after jumping in and swimming down under water to the car and the doors wouldn't open because rocks on the lake bottom have the doors wedged. Jonestown/Singleton Bend Tx.
6. You are driving at night in a storm and don't realize the low water crossing you are about to drive over is now covered in high water (see underpass scenario) and off you go down stream. You will never be able to open a door in this situation. Multiple locations - although most of the time, these cases are people just being stupid and driving through a flooded crossing. It takes as little as 2 inches of flowing water to wash a car or truck off a bridge.
I really, really, really hate swift water rescue scenarios. They seldom work out well.
Anything with a small surface area and a sharp blow with force will work. Back before car manufacturers changed antenna types and spring punches came into fashion w/fire fighters/emts, we were taught to unscrew the radio antenna (yep, the old ones just screwed on) and whip the little tip protector ball at the window - shattered the side windows every time.
The epic brick failure was probably due to the brick hitting the window on a flat face. Had it hit with a corner, it would have shattered the window. Again, that's probably why the porcelain shards worked,,, a sharp point hit with enough force.
AntDog
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I know all that man. Back in my younger, dumber, less law abiding days we used to break the ceramic parts off of spark plugs for that purpose. My buddies called it "white magic".
I guarantee you a knife will go through a car window. Go to a salvage yard and try it.
OOHH, I like "it could never happen to me" scenarios.
1 - Driving along a road in heavy rain, vehicle hydroplanes, slides off the road into a rain filled, narrow ditch that's filled deeper than car top high. Driver and/ passenger could not doors wide enough to get out. Multiple locations in multiple states - east TX, LA and MA (Ted Kennedy at Chappaquiddick).
2- Driving along the road and, for whatever reason (inattention, texting and driving, dodging a skunk/deer/dog/cow/horse) you drive into a creek or stock pond you happened to be passing. (your body is found 20+ years later when the drought lowers the pond's water level and some one sees your car top). (Taylor Tx - my old home town)
3 - Driving in an unfamiliar area, at night, in bad weather and turn down a lane that just so happens to be a boat ramp - with few exceptions, most cars are not amphibious. (Somewhere in OK,IIRC)
4 - Driving in an urban area during bad weather at night. Go to drive through an underpass and find that the dang thing is full of water because the drains in the curbs have plugged up and you could tell because your lights bounce off the water and it looks just like blacktop. (Houston, Tx)
5. Someone is dumb enough to park a vehicle on a slope pointing at a bluff overlooking a lake, leaves the engine running with a kid inside. Either the transmission slips out of park (known to have happened with some makes/models) or the kid messes with the shift lever. For whichever reason, vehicle rolls down slope, over bluff into water and since no one has a spring punch or fixed blade knife (see AntDog's method above) to pop the window after jumping in and swimming down under water to the car and the doors wouldn't open because rocks on the lake bottom have the doors wedged. Jonestown/Singleton Bend Tx.
6. You are driving at night in a storm and don't realize the low water crossing you are about to drive over is now covered in high water (see underpass scenario) and off you go down stream. You will never be able to open a door in this situation. Multiple locations - although most of the time, these cases are people just being stupid and driving through a flooded crossing. It takes as little as 2 inches of flowing water to wash a car or truck off a bridge.
I really, really, really hate swift water rescue scenarios. They seldom work out well.
Anything with a small surface area and a sharp blow with force will work. Back before car manufacturers changed antenna types and spring punches came into fashion w/fire fighters/emts, we were taught to unscrew the radio antenna (yep, the old ones just screwed on) and whip the little tip protector ball at the window - shattered the side windows every time.
The epic brick failure was probably due to the brick hitting the window on a flat face. Had it hit with a corner, it would have shattered the window. Again, that's probably why the porcelain shards worked,,, a sharp point hit with enough force.
Yup water is dangerous and flowing water is crazy dangerous. Nobody expects to end up in the drink until it happens.
I'd add icy roads as another way to get wet to your list. A thin film of black ice with water on top is about as treacherous as it gets. Hit that and you go where physics takes you. The curve in the road becomes a straightaway. For some reason black ice likes to form around bridges.
Yes something hard and pointy is what's needed to break windows.
The side windows are made of a tempered glass so they will be easy to break in an emergency. They have high surface compressive stress and high internal tensile stress. When you overcome that the window shatters. Hard and and pointy is the name of the game. Windshields on the other hand are laminated glass designed to stay in one piece even when they take a pebble hit at high speed. As such they are much more difficult to break.
Those spark plug bits are also known as "ninja rocks".
The reason I replied to the hulking out posts is that people stuck in cars need to know they can't rely on their mitts alone to get them out of a car wreck. It's great that you know about windows. For those who didn't they do now. I've never tried a knife but I'm sure that would work too.
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My backup work belt is under my back bench seat so if I need to break windows I have a 20oz rip hammer, linemans pliers, and a 12" spud wrench to choose from.
Plus I have a box with some odds and ends like screw drivers, ratchet, first aid stuff, jumper cables, flashlight, ect.
Every once in a while this stuff comes in handy.
Plus I have a box with some odds and ends like screw drivers, ratchet, first aid stuff, jumper cables, flashlight, ect.
Every once in a while this stuff comes in handy.
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One thing folks need to remember is one of those physics truths - an object in motion stays in motion.
If you are in a moving vehicle,anything that is loose is going to keep going in the same direction it was going when your vehicle "suddenly" slows down or changes direction due to hitting something, starts to spin or flip. They WILL NOT be where they were before the collision, unless they were firmly fixed in place.
Your emergency exit tools should be FIRMLY anchored or they WILL become deadly flying objects.
We had a wreck one time involving a work van. The wreck would have been survivable, if not for the 500# tool storage cabinet that was NOT anchored down and smashed into the back of the driver's seat, breaking the seat loose and crushing the driver between the seat and steering wheel. Multiple broken ribs/flail chest segments with ribs piercing lungs. DRT.
So if you drive a van, make sure all your crap in the back is PROPERLY anchored.
If you are in a moving vehicle,anything that is loose is going to keep going in the same direction it was going when your vehicle "suddenly" slows down or changes direction due to hitting something, starts to spin or flip. They WILL NOT be where they were before the collision, unless they were firmly fixed in place.
Your emergency exit tools should be FIRMLY anchored or they WILL become deadly flying objects.
We had a wreck one time involving a work van. The wreck would have been survivable, if not for the 500# tool storage cabinet that was NOT anchored down and smashed into the back of the driver's seat, breaking the seat loose and crushing the driver between the seat and steering wheel. Multiple broken ribs/flail chest segments with ribs piercing lungs. DRT.
So if you drive a van, make sure all your crap in the back is PROPERLY anchored.
Good luck with that. Windows are one thing, the windshield is another. Much tougher than it looks.