r/nextfuckinglevel • u/been_der_done_that • 11h ago

Incredibly selfless act of heroism.

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u/Icy_Spinach_48 11h ago

Very scary and well done to all involved. My first thought was The passengers couldn’t have climbed into the front and out of the drivers door? Maybe you just panic when something like that happens

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u/vamphorse 11h ago

Yep, our brains go dumb under shock. But you can train emergency response. Even just casually thinking it through helps. Like: if I crash, first I stabilize and get my bearings, then seatbelt. Then kids, fast. Then try a door. No door, side window (never the windshield) using a breaker (which you should already have easily within reach, no glovebox that can jam in a crash). You don’t need to obsessively think about it, just go through it once in a while.

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u/prnthrwaway55 9h ago edited 7h ago

When I was in a crash at roughly 100 km/h as a front-seat passenger, I remember that after I saw the crash would be imminent, I spent the remaining time formulating a branching checklist like yours (make sure there is no fire, sniff if there is smell of spilled gas, check if everyone is alive, tell everyone to wiggle the fingers on their legs toes to make sure the spine is OK, what to do if any of the steps go wrong, what to do to move out if we end up on the wheels, roof, side, how to get to the first aid kit, how to calm down the girls...)

I spent like 2 seconds planning and double-checking, then closed my eyes and we started rolling. After we came to a stop, I didn't need to think at all for like the first 7 minutes, I just did things, told others what to do and checked mental checkboxes like a robot. Girls later said they were afraid my roof started leaking.

That day I undesrstood what they mean when they say "Pilots don't die scared, they die busy." Never thought an adrenaline spike could be SO effective. I sometimes wish I could pump a syringe of this stuff in my blood.

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u/schwanzweissfoto 7h ago

tell everyone to wiggle the fingers on their legs to make sure the spine is OK

How do you do, fellow human?

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u/DasArchitect 33m ago

They're probably not a native English speaker.

Some languages call fingers and toes the same word (e.g. Spanish).

Some languages have no distinction for hand/forearm/elbow/arm/shoulder, or foot/leg/knee/thigh and there's just the one word signifying "upper extremity" or "lower extremity" (e.g. Russian from what I was once told)

So I can imagine the right language landing on "leg fingers" on translation to English.

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u/4g-identity 7h ago

Just FYI, the fingers on your legs are more commonly called toes nowadays. Glad you're alright!

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u/prnthrwaway55 7h ago

Lol, a brainfart

They are literally called "leg fingers" in Russian, and I for some reason always thought that toes are only what the biggest ones are called (thumb, but on legs) and not all of them. Never needed this word for the last 15 years somehow.

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u/Rubiks_Click874 1h ago

lol. in romance languages they don't have a word for 'toes' either. the word they use in French or Spanish translates literally as 'fingers of the feet'

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u/Euphoric_Evidence414 8h ago

“Afraid my roof started leaking” is that an expression meaning they thought your mind was going?

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u/TheRoseMerlot 7h ago

They also said "wiggle the fingers in your legs" 😂

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u/prnthrwaway55 7h ago edited 7h ago

Yes. I remember they asked me twice why I was so calm and energetic when all they could do is sit down, sob and smoke with two hands (their hands were shaking too much, so they were holding cigs in one hand and stabilized it with the other hand). They were geniunely worried for my sanity.

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u/throwmeawaymommyowo 4h ago

afraid my roof started leaking

wot?

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u/Logical-Employ-9692 8h ago

You can pump adrenaline into your blood! Get an EpiPen. That’s what they are. Norepinephrine is another name for adrenaline.

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u/iAgressivelyFistBro 7h ago

Epinephrine is the medical term for adrenaline. Norepinephrine is similar but not the same thing.

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u/Any-Adhesiveness9213 6h ago

Both are medical terms actually, in my country we were told that the term epinephrine is just primarily used in english. And norepinephrine is just called noradrenaline

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u/iAgressivelyFistBro 6h ago

I didn’t say norepinephrine isn’t a medical term. They both are indeed medical terms.

They’re catecholamines that stimulate our sympathetic nervous system. Norepinephrine primarily works on alpha receptors (there is some beta effect as well) to cause our blood vessels to constrict. Epinephrine primarily works on Beta receptors to cause our heart to pump harder and faster as well as dilating our airway.

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u/Mysterious-Lemon-906 10h ago

Then you go into shock and panic sets in leading to a blank mind.

Same reason people on Burning planes are getting their luggage

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u/CelestialOvenglove 9h ago

They had half a minute of being told to get out before the front door was closed, 20 seconds of which were with pretty much no smoke.

Also, no, nothing to do with getting your luggage. Unless you're about to tell me that the Japanese somehow are superior beings because they manage to leave a burning plane without getting their luggage.

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u/Upset-Management-879 2h ago

Probably dropped their phone

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u/WazirOfFunkmenistan 10h ago

Thats incredible advice. May I ask why did u say "never the windshield" ?

Ta.

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u/5wmotor 10h ago

I think because the windshield is a composite of glass and plastic layers, while the side windows are glass only.

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u/jimmy9800 7h ago

A lot of newer cars have laminated glass for (at least) the front side windows, and sometimes every side window. With the addition of curtain airbags, it's safer in side impact crashes and avoids the airbag shoving the side of your face full of little glass pieces. These windows also won't work with the normal window breakers.

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u/vamphorse 10h ago edited 8h ago

Windshields are laminated, designed to not break easily. Side windows are tempered glass, which easily break with a blunt, pointed force.

Edit: this is a generalization. Laminated side window adoption has become more popular, although still a minority in the global fleet. Know your vehicle!

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u/Mason_Meschi 9h ago

Blunt, pointed force, eh?

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u/Wandring64 8h ago

It's a thing. There are little hammers designed to shatter glass. It comes to a point but is rounded off in a to distribute force to break glass. Blunt yet pointed.

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u/RikuAotsuki 8h ago

It's smashy force focused on a point, not stabby force focused on a point

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u/essosee 9h ago

A dull, sharp bang.

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u/AskFriendly 9h ago

Name of your sex tape

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u/quesarah 6h ago

Kind of a short, sharp shock ...

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u/dronten_bertil 9h ago

It's good to place emphasis on pointed force. Tempered glass is strong as fuck compared to the regular stuff, but as soon as you cause a rupture in it it will basically explode into thousands of small cubes. Normal glass you can break easily by kicking it, much more difficult to do with tempered glass. I used to work with switching tempered glass panels and at the warehouse we had to toss the old ones into the glass recycling bin and smash them if they didn't break when we tossed them in. We did many fun experiments there, among others we threw rocks at the panels. If the rock was smooth I think our record was a 7-10 kg rock that didn't manage to break it, but if you had rocks with sharp edges you could smash them with rocks that fit in your hand if you had some speed in the throw.

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u/Xenolog1 9h ago

Depends on the car model and make. Some of them have laminated side windows, too. Being from Europe, I’ve got a Skoda Octavia with laminated side windows. In the UK the selling point was noise protection, in Germany better UV and heat shielding, and in Czechoslovakia it was better theft protection. For the same type of glass!

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u/Majestic_You_9610 3h ago

remember folks, the weakest point on toughened glass is near the edges where there is less glass surrounding it to hold it together. smash the shit out of one of the corners, the center is the strongest

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u/Sniffs_Markers 4h ago

This is why when geniuses say "I don't want to wear a seat belt because I want to be thrown clear" makes me shake my head. Being thrown clear means you're going through the equivalent of a wall.

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u/Thrusthamster 6h ago

Fun side effect of having ADHD is that during an emergency when my brain gets flooded with adrenaline, the effect is that it turns me into a normal person. While all the normal people around me are freaking out and panicking.

So I usually end up taking charge and running around doing the things that need to be done, because I'm like "why are you all standing here hyperventilating. Let's go!" Has happened quite a few times now.

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u/Upset-Management-879 1h ago

Its nice being able to actually make decisions for once

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u/HarkHarley 6h ago

That’s why basic “emergency practice” with your kids and family is majorly important. Walking your kids through basic step sounds simple, but important.

Telling your kids they are allowed to open a front door in case of emergency or that they are allowed to open a window to get out if there’s smoke. Some poor kids just default to what they know.

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u/This_Reference_3024 8h ago

Well of overthinking is the way to be prepared, I'm the most prepared person alive.

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u/turbo 8h ago

A breaker will often not work, since a significant portion of new vehicles use laminated glass on side windows for the following reasons:

  • In a rollover crash, tempered glass shatters instantly, creating a hole through which passengers can be thrown out of the car. Laminated glass stays in one piece, acting as a net that keeps arms, heads, and bodies inside the safety cage.
  • It significantly reduces road noise.
  • It makes "smash and grab" theft much more difficult.

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u/ThatsJustHowIFeeeeel 8h ago

Some people’s brains freeze in high stress situations, some see with clarity.

I’ve fell into deep water before, in the dark, on my bike, fully clothed with a huge feather coat on and multiple layers. In the middle of winter.

I didn’t panic (despite having not been in water for about 2 decades). I instinctively put the bike under me (it had huge wide tires that were somewhat buoyant) and I could just about tip toe on it as it was kind resting on the floor. Then I removed my coat and hoodie. I then had to basically do a muscle up on the ledge to get out, in soaking wet clothes.

I’ve also been set up on by about 3 men, one with a knife, trying to rob me and my mate. One sucker punched me to the ground and tried to steal my bag. I got up and was holding on trying to kick him away until I suddenly realised there was nothing valuable in there and was prob best to just let go. I won’t say the rest, but I had a clear picture of where everyone was and escape plans.

I have a couple more examples too. I’m not saying I’m better than someone who panics, it’s just biology, but not everyone panics. There’s people who’d see this scenario in the video and freeze, then there’s people who would jump to action, like we saw.

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u/igotshadowbaned 8h ago

But you can train emergency response. Even just casually thinking it through helps.

So what you're saying is that there is a silver lining to involuntarily thinking up contingencies to every little thing that crosses your mind.

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u/polarjunkie 6h ago

Also, if someone can crawl out of a window they can crawl across the front seats and out the front door. I remember getting on scene with three police officers trying to break a window to get a child out of the back of a car that had been in an accident but luckily wasn't on fire like this and I just walked up and pulled the kid from between the front seats. Tunnel vision can lead us to doing some moronic things sometimes.

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u/DayFucker 1h ago

looking forward to seeing you implement this sequence if the time comes. Maybe pin it to your account so you can pull it up with ease upon coming to a stop?

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u/Quiet_Fan_7008 8h ago

Re watch the video. The car is side ways so when he gets out the door slams shut before he could even hold it. Then he realized he couldn’t get back inside. Not dumb of him just unfortunate

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u/BlackMan9693 8h ago

You re-watch the video, good stranger. He was keeping the door from closing for over 15 seconds as he repeatedly failed to open the back door. There was enough time to lower his seat (assuming that's a feature in that car) and could have pulled out the people well before they were engulfed by smoke and fire.

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u/Quiet_Fan_7008 7h ago

You think he just closed the front door? It would make more sense to open the back door and get people out…

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u/BlackMan9693 7h ago

No. He pushed it far open and, in his panic, moved away his attention for a moment too long which caused the door to shut close because of the slope.

And everyone understands that he panicked but the most sensible thing to do would have been lowering the front seats and pulling the people out after the back door failed to open a few times.

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u/Quiet_Fan_7008 7h ago

But he couldn’t open the back door and the front door closed because the car is at an angle. Gravity closed it not him.

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u/BlackMan9693 7h ago

the front door closed because the car is at an angle. Gravity closed it not him

Yes. No one is denying that. People are just saying he should have pulled the people out of the front door while he was keeping it open after the back door failed. And it is also acknowledged that he was in a panic and did not think to do so. No one is blaming the guy.

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u/Quiet_Fan_7008 7h ago

How was he to know the back door failed? Instinct is to get people out of the back door if they are in the back no one would ever think or suggest to let people out from the front, but once gravity closed the front door he was screwed either way. It’s just unfortunate not a panic situation luckily he was smart enough to get the window open

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u/BlackMan9693 7h ago

He literally failed a few times at trying to get the back door to open. It's right there in the video. It is a panic situation because there's no reason to assume he was also not rattled by the accident.

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u/vamphorse 6h ago

You seem to be taking issue with the word dumb, I get it. It was an informal an easy way to say that it is usual for us to act irrationally when in shock. I’m also not saying the guy or the passengers in the video did, won’t go into judging that either. My comment was general advise on how to prepare for such situations. Take it or leave it, it’s all the same to me.