UW window opening tool

[Boater Dan]

Kershaw make a Knife for fire with a Diamond Punch on the Handle I used it at Deeper Depths it is A great tool No springs Just Smash the Glass little effort, But as D Said Some Glass q little Harder than others.

Diamond punch will work on tempered side glass but will not work on laminated side glass. If you are not familiar, laminated is the same that is utilized in the windshields of vehicles. This presents a big problem for submerged vehicles. I do vehicle rescue for the FD and we utilize a Sawz All or a Glas Master Saw on laminated glass. There is no easy answer that I am aware of on this scenario.

Dan

 

[Gary D.]

The more pressure the insurance companies put on the vehicle mfg's the more laminated glass we are going to see. Insurance companies are going to save money and along with that is going to be a small percentage of the public that is going to burn to death or drown because of the topugher glass. Money talks. Seems that a GPS is worth mnore than a life.

 

[oneshotshooter]

Thanks for all of the input. We will try the rescue type knife with the glass breaking point and also revisit the spring loaded center punch.

 

[MSProScuba]

I can't wait to get into the muck with a hybrid, LOL!!!!

 

[bgreenea3]

The best window punch I've found is the RescuMe its keychain sized with a seatbelt cutter..... and less than $10. the problem with hammers and other types is you can't get a good swing under water.

Michigan State Police did some testing and put together a awesome training class with a half a car they can submerge in thier Pool. if you are in Michigan they offer it for free. they fpound that the rescume was the best of what was out there.

 

[Gary D.]

These are a neat little tool but how do you do maintenance on it? The larger spring punches can be opened up, cleaned and greased to keep them operating. How do you do that with these? I see where these are normally $10.00. The one's we use are $2.00 on sale and servicable.

 

[bgreenea3]

service has not been an issue on them..... they ae plastic. how much service are they going to need?

they are more for the "always on hand" type of calls. where you see the car go in or you are close by, and its always in a easy accessable place so you don't have to dig through your gear to find your window punch. Michigan State Police came up with this after one of their troopers responded to a car in the water and had no way to get the infant out bcause he couldn't get the window broken. the trooper is not on their dive team and had no tools to help him. So their dive team and one of their traingin Lt's came up wioth this course and tested out different punches as well as driving cars into lakes to see what happens.

 

[tfd86]

Laminated comes out nice with a ajax tool with v bit on surface, would probably work at depth don't know about dragging 110 feet of hose, but for 30 ft or less 4500 psi cylinder on surface tool below

 

[Gary D.]

Laminated comes out nice with a ajax tool with v bit on surface, would probably work at depth don't know about dragging 110 feet of hose, but for 30 ft or less 4500 psi cylinder on surface tool below

For insurance companies to put the rare loss of life the windows are going to cause over the more common loss of property is just plain wrong. You can’t put a price on a human life and that is what they are doing. I have used “Jaws” underwater and it’s just not worth the time and hassle. I’ve used both the hand pump and connected to the truck and either way you have cut so far into the limited rescue window it just isn’t worth it as it takes way to much time.

It’s going to take more time than you think. Car goes in, divers arrive, get to the vehicle and try and punch the windows. It doesn’t work so you have to come back up and change the game plan and go back and try again. OR Do you rig something like the AJAX on every dive and reduce the survival chances unnecessarily if it isn’t needed?

I’ve been working on a small hand held air ram that will plug into a divers BC hose if needed. So far it isn’t working very well but maybe someday.

 

[DiveGusto]

Did a call last July in the river on a Ford expedition. Upside down, was easily able to spring punch the side windows but not the rear tempered glass. I and another diver hit it many times all over, no go. I couldn't clear the vehicle and there was no direct tow truck access, so we ended up using a small tug like boat to pull it up stream in front of the boat launch ramp. Hooked the wrecker to it there and pulled it out. Victim was found in the rear area. So later I was thinking about wearing a big diamond ring to cut a circle in the glass but nobody would approve the purchase. Wife won't loan me hers.