According to the official State website, there are over 11,000 miles of rivers and streams, more than 7,700 acres of water in lakes greater than 10 acres, and who knows how many small water retention ponds.  As a result, according to FHP  over 4,800 crash vehicles end up sinking in water. 

Do you know how to save yourself from drowning if you crash your vehicle into a pond?  According to EMS Responder.com,  if you plunge your vehicle into water, you must immediately make the decision to evacuate the vehicle and determine quickly what method is going to work. 

Because of the weight of the water pushing on the doors, it is very unlikely that they will open.  So after you have unbuckled your seatbelt, try rolling down the windows.   Even if they are electric, there is a chance they may still work for a short time.  If  you cannot get the windows down, your only option is to break one of them out. 

Since your vehicle is most likely diving nose-first into the water, it is not recommended that you try to get out the windshield.  The force of the incoming water would be too strong.  Therefore, you should try to break either the glass in either a door or the back window.  EMSResponder recommends you carry a rescue tool designed specifically for this purpose either in your glovebox or closed console.  (Do not carry a conventional hammer under the seat as it could knock you unconscious with no means of escape.)  Try to remove your shoes or heavy clothing to make your assent to the top as effortless as possible.

As your vehicle continues to sink, depending on the depth of the water,  it will either land right-side up or on it may flip over and land on the roof.  In either case, you need to be on your way out before it hits bottom. 

If you are not alone in this type of accident, all of the passengers should try to hold hands to lead each other to the top.  If there is a child in a safety seat, while they have limited experience with this, the EMS Responders felt it best to cut the seatbelt and leave the child in the seat to float to the surface.

Let’s face it, if you miss a turn and your vehicle plunges into a pond, panic is more than likely to set it.  It will take everything you have practiced to get your wits about you and get to the surface safely.  That is why the EMSResponder recommends practicing the  SOS-GO method of survival:

• S = Stay Calm. Assess the situation. Slow your breathing.
• O = Open your window(s) or door(s)
• S = Disengage your seatbelt
• GO = Get out

This is National School Bus Safety Week and it is used to promote those facts.  This year  National Association for Pupil Transportation  (NAPT) has the support of the U.S. House of Representatives “supporting the goals and ideals of National School Bus Safety Week. ”

The slogan for this year is “Avoid Harm. Obey the Stop Arm.”

The reason for the safety week is to focus on the fact that according to the NAPT -

There is no safer way to transport a child than in a school bus. Fatal crashes involving school bus occupants are rare events, even though school buses serve daily in every community. Every school day, some 475,000 yellow school buses transport more than 25 million children to and from schools and school-related activities.

Officials want more parents to realize that there is no safer form of transportation for your child getting to and from school.  Drving them yourself or allowing them to ride with  teenager is not the safer solution.  Most of the 800 children who die each year walking, biking or riding in a car to school would be alive if they had been on a school bus.

The national school bus transportation system makes approximately 10 billion trips to and from school or field trips each year.  It by far exceeds any other mass transit system in the country and it remains one of the safest.

Every day there are more than 25 million children are making that trip to school the safest way possible, shouldn’t your child be one of them?