Driving in water

I'm not jacking someone's post,it was done in fun and I did get a chuckle. This past spring a young mother tried to drive down a road that was closed due to water running across, this was near Kitchener Ontario at the Grand River. Her van was ultimately swept off the road and into the current, she tried to escape and her 17 month old son was swept from her arms , she had to be rescued by the fire department. 1000's of volunteers searched the river flats for 20 miles trying to find the body of the little boy's body, the search went on for weeks, his body was found 5 months after. Driving through water works until the engine fan starts throwing water on the engine or floods the distributor which is often mounted down in front on newer vehicles,the vehicle becomes buoyant in water as the van became a boat in this case. Our street was flooded one spring and there was about three feet of water out front, several people drove through, one Honda flooded in the middle and we had to wade in and push him out, told me after it cost several hundred dollars to have fluids changed and the car dried out and running. I won't drive through water deeper than a few inches, I'm not preaching, I am saying be very careful, trouble rides a fast horse !!

Around here we have creek water that backs up and has no flow, as kids we would swim in it. The river gets big around here and I will not drive thru it once it get a few inches deep. The county closes the roads to keep people from need to be rescued but once the sign is of they will give you a ticket even if its a trickle. I got pulled over last year and said I have lived here all my life I knows safe and he let me go but I know a guy and his son got tickets for driving a combine and grain cart thru the water. I have seen semi trailer washed off the road and one time I took the 8430 thru it when it was a couple feet deep and I could feel the water pushing on it.

The Mother also got an impaired driving
Charge .

Put up a warning attached to high water signs that say "Don't bother to call 911 we will NOT risk our personnel because of your Stupidity"

The car will float up .This looses pressure of the tires on the roadway and the car moves with the water instead. I felt it once in my Cadillac and I chickened out fast .Back up too deep.

Arizona has the Stupid Motorist Law which states if you go around a barrier and enter the water and need to be rescued if you are lucky enough to live through it you can be charged for the rescue. Happens every time the washes flood.

It's due to the fact that you can't sue the state. If there was law suits involved there would be a mechanical net that would raise up making it impossible to drive into these areas when water was present. With all the safety devices on everything it just makes people super stupid and depending on these devices. The highways don't have many automatic devices. Signs warning of high water is insufficient for the mentality of people today.

There was a similar event in North Carolina during the hurricane.

A young mother lost her baby in the flood waters when her car was swept away. She was trying to get out of the flooded car, lost her grip on the baby. The body was found the next day downstream.

Now, she is looking at criminal charges, prison time, because she drove around barricades.

A school bus driver in Leander near Austin drove around 2, yes 2, barricades and into water on a low water crossing. He had one child on board. The bus floated off and finally caught on a tree. He was arrested immediately after FD personnel rescued them. Charged with child endangerment and disregarding a barricade. There is video from the bus camera.

Oh they see the signs, and still think, "I can make it." When you try to advise them against it, they make fun of you you and call you the "YT water police." Of course as they float on down the river they're screaming for you to come help them.

I don't understand why that law is stupid. Someone is risking their life to save someone else that didn't head warnings. They should be fined!

Sir, Google it. The driver is being referred to as stupid not the law. You?re kidding, right?

(quoted from post at 13:44:19 11/07/18) I don't understand why that law is stupid. Someone is risking their life to save someone else that didn't head warnings. They should be fined!

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I don't think he meant that the law was stupid. The way I read it was that the law was titled "Stupid Motorist Law", i.e. that it is the motorist who was stupid.

Sorry, i read it wrong and took it personally as I have been involved with a water rescue. My apologies.

Need to add the rest of the story. Ontario here also
Woman drove around barricades blocking the road, and has been charged with impaired driving and impaired driving causing death

Only fools drive around barricades.....This blacktop near me wasn't barricaded but all of us that live near there were smart enough to let the water go down...It was 2-3 ft deep and moving 20-30 MPH which would have been deadly..Lots of that water was from my farm..30 minutes later it was all gone..That would have been a disaster after dark...

Some years ago a friend and his wife went to Osceola,MO to visit his Mom...That morning they drove old Hwy 13 and everything was fine...They went home after dark and drove in to 10-15 ft of water at the south edge of town as someone had failed to close the gates blocking the road.....Its a well known flood area and is often underwater for days.....Lots of rain had fallen down river and was going in to Truman Lake which then backs up.....He and his wife swim good but almost drowned....He said that if they had their twin grand daughters with them all 4 would have drowned..It was a worse case scenario..

In the late 70s or early 80s I was driving around Garland, Texas one night after a rain, on Shiloh Blvd (4 lane rd.) and came upon water on the road. I was in it before I realized it was there. My car floated and I had enough momentum to make it across the high water and keep running. The car was a 67 Corvair. Been carefull since then.

I was driving a fire engine responding to a call and came upon high water. It was only an inch or so at the center, but I was concerned that along the down stream edge that the pavement could be getting undermined. I put an expendable "probie" out in front of me. He could look down through the water to see that the pavement was not getting undercut at the edge.