I forgot about that. My wife's car one of the selling points was safety grass in the side windows (as well as the front).
However I thought that back windows were not, both from having my own shot out with a pellet gun and that mythbusters episode where they tried to put pressure on the back window while shooting it with a pellet gun.
Even if you manage to survive the impact with the water but hitting at a low enough speed to not pop the air bags or bend the center of the car then you still have to be alert enough to either cut or unlatch the seatbelt, wait and unlock the doors then open them. A lot of room for error when stressed.

I can't even find these things locally..any type of seat belt cutter. As cheap as some of them are, one would think Wally World or other would carry them.

With respect, I've been on several calls where the keys to a vehicle aren't in the ignition. It seems that if people are wanting to carry this sort of tool, it should be in a more secure location than the key chain. Alternatively, have a second tool in a separate location.

I recently bought a benchmade ERT 1. It has a seat belt cutter and a window punch and a light. Comes in a nice belt pouch, so used some para cord to tie it to the seat belt and anchor point in the floor. Seems to be well made and was 29.99 at the local gun shop.

Note that AFAIK, "safety glass" is not a specific enough term. My understanding is that could mean either laminated glass (like the front), or tempered glass (the kind that breaks into lots of little pieces).

Laminated glass would be the one to ruin your day if submerged.

-john

I did find a resqme at Brookstones locally. The website and packaging states it will break the side and back windows.

I think what Martinfocazio meant is that if the side windows used laminated glass, it wouldn't work. Most cars don't use laminated glass on the side windows, but must use it on the front window.

I think he is also suggesting that some cars may use laminated glass on the side windows and thus it wouldn't work in that case.

If indeed some cars use laminated glass on side windows, the product website would be wrong to make the statement without some sort of disclaimer.

Either way, it probably makes sense to determine what kind of glass in the side windows for your own vehicle.

-john

I've got a Hinderer Rescue knife, and if it's not on my person, it's in my car, secured within arms reach to the inside of the storage bin between the driver and passenger seat.

Re: laminated side windows

This is totally outside my experience...

Laminated glass is two sheets of tempered glass with a flexible sheet of plastic between them, right? So, if you were in a situation (not necessarily under water)where you needed to break your way out of it (side window) and had a spring-loaded punch, couldn't you break the glass, then kick it to beat it up more, and sort of force-fold it out of the way so you could get past it?

Sue

Generally, the laminated glass is only the windsheild and sometimes the rear window. The wide windows are just tempered glass- they'll go pretty easily with a good impact.