<p>Three girls have been missing since Sunday night. A friend received 2 phone calls about a minute apart - grainy sounding - the girls said something about a lake, or water…and were frantic.</p>
<p>Where is Dickinson State University – is it urban, rural, or what?</p>
<p>[It’s</a> in North Dakota](<a href=“http://www.dickinsonstate.edu/]It’s”>http://www.dickinsonstate.edu/).</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ivg3H4SVxoJDOECn-VbmiaH9xhvAD9BO7ERO0[/url]”>http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ivg3H4SVxoJDOECn-VbmiaH9xhvAD9BO7ERO0</a>
<a href=“3 Missing North Dakota College Softball Players Found Dead - ABC News”>http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/search-college-women-missing-north-dakota/story?id=8981839</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,571526,00.html[/url]”>http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,571526,00.html</a></p>
<p>breaking news: they found the car in nearby lake with their bodies inside. So sad.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine being the friend who got the call. I would never be able to get what I heard out of my head.</p>
<p>So sad and very surprising, as there are only 2 lakes within 100 miles of Dickinson.</p>
<p>Absolutely heartbreaking. My thoughts are with their friend and their families.</p>
<p>Horrible story. :(</p>
<p>This is so heartbreaking.
The news is saying 2 phone calls… from 2 girls to 2 different friends. Both seemed to be saying there was an emergency. Although it may not have made any difference in this case, do our kids just automatically dial their friends no matter what or were calls made to 911 that weren’t able to connect??</p>
<p>What in the world could have happened? Could they not get out of the car?</p>
<p>That is so weird. If I was going down in a car in a lake, I wouldn’t be calling friends; I’d be trying to get the hell out of the car! Something doesn’t seem right.</p>
<p>I am not sure about this, but I think that it is very difficult to escape from a car that is underwater. This is an awful story. I was hoping that they would be found unharmed.</p>
<p>Getting out of a submerged car isn’t so easy. One can’t open the doors due to the pressure and the electric windows won’t work so they can’t be lowered. One would need to break one of the car windows which is very difficult to do unless one has either a specialized tool for it (there is one made for this purpose) or something like a hammer or maglite flashlight or they’d have to wait until the interior was almost completely filled with water to equalize the pressure to try to open a door. </p>
<p>I’m envisioning them placing these calls from the vehicle while it’s submerged which is a gut-wrenching vision. Regardless of who they called they probably wouldn’t have had that much time and unless there was help very nearby it’s hard to imagine they could be helped. They could have tried dialing 911 and gotten placed on hold which seems to happen sometimes when dialing from a cell phone so they called the friends in desperation.</p>
<p>^yes, panic sets in quickly, water pressure makes it extremely difficult to open the doors, and the windows have to be broken in order to get out (not an easy task under the best of situations). There have been many special segments on various shows showing exactly what it’s like to be trapped in a vehicle underwater and what one should do to try to escape.
It was highly recommended that people keep a special all-in-one tool in an easy access area inside the car. The tool has a seat belt cutter and a hard metal ended hammerlike thing that will smash the window. </p>
<p>the tool looks like this:</p>
<p>[Amazon.com:</a> LifeHammer Orange Original Emergency Hammer: Automotive](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/LifeHammer-Orange-Original-Emergency-Hammer/dp/B000BN3A4Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=automotive&qid=1257307153&sr=8-1]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/LifeHammer-Orange-Original-Emergency-Hammer/dp/B000BN3A4Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=automotive&qid=1257307153&sr=8-1)</p>
<p>ucsd dad - you are probably right and how horrifying… if 911 said wait the other girls probably called whoever was closest.<br>
I’m getting those emergency tools for everyone for Christmas… trying to sleep tonight…</p>
<p>^Agree about the sleeping thing. This terrifies me. The poor girls who received the phone calls…</p>
<p>Sometimes I still think crank windows are better… too many electrical options on cars today.</p>
<p>but hey I am old fashioned that way</p>
<p>It looks like Mythbusters took on this problem and here are their results:</p>
<p>[MythBusters</a> Episode 72: Underwater Car](<a href=“http://mythbustersresults.com/episode72]MythBusters”>http://mythbustersresults.com/episode72)</p>
<p>My sister in law gave us those hammers once for Christmas.
But even if they knew any of this, panic does set in. Horrible to imagine.</p>
<p>Thanks, Toledo for the mythbusters results. When we lived in Miami and there were lots of canals that paralleled the roads, every now and then you’d get a car that would swerve into the canal. The police would get a panicked call from the trapped motorist–who often wouldn’t be able to tell the police where he or she was. :eek:</p>
<p>Would a GPS locator in a cell phone help? How much air (in minutes) does a submerged car contain?</p>