Nifty Selections | Smart Practical Equipment

Escape Your Automobile Alive

This small and practical tool may well save you and your family in an auto accident.

How?

By letting you cut yourself free from a jammed seat belt.
And breaking the glass on a side window to escape

Sounds Dramatic – Not Really

Seat Belt

After a motor vehicle accident a seat belt can be difficult to release. The only option is to cut yourself free. Fine if we have a knife at the ready Most of us don’t. And if there are no emergency services at hand what do we do? Wait?

With the AutoXiTool you can quickly and easily cut your seat belt webbing using the razor sharp blade secured in its handle.

Check Out this video to see the cutter in action

Once free you can then exit your car – or can you?

It might not be that simple.

Escaping A Vehicle

Again like the seat belt your auto doors may be jammed and difficult to open. The only option left is to break a car window. Not as easy as you may think.

The windscreen is laminated glass and the rear window maybe too. These are too tough to break even with a car escape hammer. And a side window, while not so tough, is still hard to break without some sort of implement like the AutoXiTool.

A well directed blow with an AutoXiTool on a side window using the pointed head shatters the side glass which can then be broken out to allow you to escape.

Take a look here to see how a side window glass can be shattered.

Escaping A Watery Accident

The ability to escape your car is even more critical if you end up in the water.

No one who has seen the Myth Busters program about escaping from a sinking vehicle will take any convincing that immediate action is the key.

You can try to open the side windows immediately on entry. However these days windows in many automobiles are electrically operated. There is no longer a window winder, just a switch.

Once your battery is under water the electrics fail. Then how do you open the window?

The common suggestion that you wait until the car has filled with water to let the pressure equalize then open a door is fine – in theory.

In practice it is almost impossible to hold your breathe long enough and not to panic.

Even in a controlled and monitored experiment the Myth Busters showed that it was not possible to keep calm and wait long enough.

The Best Solution

The best course of action is NOT to wait.

Have an AutoXiTool or two mounted close at hand in their bracket. Or secured in the console or glove box so you can act quickly. Just make sure they are within reach when you are restrained with your seat belt.

DON’T WAIT
CUT Seat Belt webbing with BLADE
REMOVE the red protector cap
BREAK a window as soon as possible with pointed head
BREAK a SIDE Window (windscreens are toughened)
HIT the SIDE window FIRMLY close to a corner – where it is held more rigid
BREAK OUT shattered glass with Hammer End
Check that it is SAFE then ESCAPE (Look for fallen power lines, fire etc)
Help others out – DON’T move injured people unless vital to save life