The Most Dangerous Myths Tested On MythBusters

Being trapped in a submerging car that's quickly filling with water is the stuff of nightmares. First your car has to somehow get in the water, which is where most cars should not be. Then panic sets in. The water continues to rise as you contemplate your options. Before you know it, you're taking in

Being trapped in a submerging car that's quickly filling with water is the stuff of nightmares. First your car has to somehow get in the water, which is where most cars should not be. Then panic sets in. The water continues to rise as you contemplate your options. Before you know it, you're taking in a big breath before making your final attempt to free yourself. Think you'll make it?

The MythBusters recreated this scenario on two separate episodes to see if Adam could escape from a sinking car without resorting to breaking a window or breathing extra air from a safety source. The first experiment involved Adam trying to escape from a car while it was slowly lowered headfirst into a swimming pool. Adam could not escape in time and used his emergency air. In a later episode, they tried it again, except the conditions were much worse. This time, Adam had to exit the car as it turned turtle (flipped on its back) while sinking, which, oh yeah, most sinking cars flip over.

When Adam again couldn't escape in time, he signaled his safety diver for emergency air. But the diver was upside-down, and "an upside-down regulator will give you air but it also gives you a lot of water," Savage said. "I took a deep breath and took a whole bunch of water. That is a very scary thing to happen when you're underwater and you've been holding your breath for a while. ... [Outside safety divers] were about four seconds away from smashing the windows when I opened the door and gave them the OK sign."

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