Reply to Key bridge in Baltimore collapses after cargo ship crashes into it

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous] [quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Even if you got out of the car, you are in the middle of a huge river! How are you swimming to safety? What about the infant in the car seat?[/quote]

I used to drive my kids back and forth from VA to MD several times a week and would keep their life jackets in the car because I am a little paranoid. [b]I'm also a bridge engineer[/b] and have an unnatural fear of such an incident. We don't go as frequently anymore, but I'm gonna put them back in the car. [/quote]

:shock: that was an unexpected plot twist

[/quote]

You'd think as an engineer you would have an understanding of the rarity of this kind of thing happening. I mean, does someone have the statistics on how many people are killed annually by bridge collapses? I'm guessing a million other things rank much higher.[/quote]

I believe these are government employees that have never had to make a cost-benefit or risk analysis. Remember, if it saves just one person... [/quote]

What are the chances of a life jacket saving anyone in the event of your car falling off a bridge into water? You have a few seconds, at most, to unbuckle car seats/seat belts, open car doors and windows, put on life jacket for yourself and your kids, all while violently falling through the air/being bumped around the inside of the vehicle, potentially w debris and/or other vehicles hitting you and becoming submerged in water. I’m just trying to understand how you would even be able to/have time to get a life jacket on in this scenario.[/quote]

I could definitely see a market for a car seat with a built in airbag or other floatation device that allows the car seat to surface to the air on its own. Maybe similar to the airbags used by backcountry skiers to survive avalanches.

Car is filling with water, you get to the back seat and unlatch the car seat from the anchors. Once the pressure equalizes, you open the backdoor, activate the airbag, and push out your kid's car seat (with kid still strapped in). Kid floats to the surface. This also allows the adults to better focus on their own safety once they escape the underwater vehicle and don't have to worry about trying to surface while holding a squirmy kid. [/quote]

How many times a year would this be used? What would be the additional cost and development time for such a product?[/quote]

I'm still trying to figure out how they're getting this contraption out of the car.[/quote]

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