Earlier this week a woman was rescued by police from a car that shortly afterwards sank into the Waitemata Harbour. Dramatic photos of this event have sparked the imagination. Several people I know have remarked that they are moderately terrified of something similar happening.
There are lots of things that I’m scared of. Moths. That I will somehow slice a piece of myself off simply by being within arm’s length of a power tool. That the female Ghostbusters reboot won’t be good and every sexist douchecanoe on the Internet will smugly say “I told you women weren’t FUNNY!”. But it’s never really occurred to me to be afraid of drowning in a submerged car.
Partly this is due to an understanding of the physics of the situation via such useful resources as the Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook and Mythbusters. I understand that the car will sink engine first, and that the doors and windows will most likely fail to open until the car is almost completely filled with water.
When I think about the possibility of finding myself in this situation, in my mind I sit there calmly in the passenger seat whilst feeling a little bit sad about how destroyed my phone is going to be (when was the last time I backed it up? I will wonder).
I unclip my seatbelt and wait for the car to fill up, perhaps counting to see how long it takes, perhaps making use of an airpocket at the rear of the vehicle, and then the Silver Fox and I open a door, exit the vehicle, and power swim our way to the surface. Perfect.
And it’s about then I remember the baby still strapped in his carseat.
Oh, SWEAR WORDS.
I may be confident, perhaps falsely so, about extricating myself from a sinking car but I’m not so hot on getting the kid out. I mean, I fumble with those carseat clips and straps when I’m on dry land and there’s no particular time pressure. Damn it. We’re all going to die. This is terrible. TERRIBLE.
So I guess my new hobby is timing myself whilst unclipping a five-point harness from various different angles. Ah motherhood, just when you think you’ve got a handle on the basics (feeding, sleeping, what to do in case of choking), you realise you’re missing all sorts of important skills from your maternal toolbelt.
Is anyone else having mildly worrying thoughts about escaping from submerged motor vehicles now?
(Featured image, Public Domain)