3%

339. NHTSA, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, has posted their 2004 traffic fatality statistics on the FARS, Fatality Analysis Reporting System, a web based encyclopedia (http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/main.cfm ). In the year 2004, three hundred and thirty nine (339) people died due to vehicle immersion accidents.

This figure puts an ominous cap on the decade that this research tool has made these statistics available on the World Wide Web. In those ten years, over three thousand (3000) people have died, trapped in their cars under water. I can’t express how much this pains me. I hope beyond hope that soon, all people that occupy a vehicle will have an opportunity to break that vehicle’s side window glass giving them a chance to get to the surface and survive. In immersion fatality cases, this glass is often all that separates them from that chance. The ability to get out of a vehicle greatly increases a person’s odds of surviving. It is estimated that annually, over ten thousand (10,000) vehicles go into the water with almost everyone getting out alive. Some people are rescued by safety professionals or Good Samaritans but most are able to escape these accidents on their own. Ten thousand cars go into the water, and only three hundred and thirty nine (339) occupants can’t make it out alive. Roughly, this equates to three percent (3%).

I can’t believe that common sense and compassion won’t kick in soon and some accommodation to this issue will be reached. The Escape Tip makes sense for numerous reasons including its simplicity, efficacy, low price, and availability to all occupants in a vehicle. The Escape Tip simultaneously removes the occupant’s seatbelt and puts the glass break tool right in the palm of their hand. What could be smarter than that?

NHTSA, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=NHTSA&oldid=16773082 (last visited March 5, 2007).