Chao, the billionaire former CEO of dry bulk shipping giant Foremost Group, tragically died at the age of 50 on Feb. 10 after accidentally backing her car into the pond making a three-point turn.
After digging through the rule the NHTSA adopted, there’s nothing in there that mandates side glazed windows. The rule covers ejection mitigation. The summary hits the major point:
The agency anticipates that manufacturers will meet the standard by modifying
existing side impact air bag curtains, and possibly supplementing them with advanced
glazing. The curtains will be made larger so that they cover more of the window
opening, made more robust to remain inflated longer, and made to deploy in both side
impacts and in rollovers. In addition, after deployment the curtains will be tethered near
the base of the vehicle’s pillars or otherwise designed to keep the impactor within the
boundaries established by the performance test. This final rule adopts a phase-in of the
new requirements, starting September 1, 2013.
There’s a lot of discussion in there. The document is over 300 pages. Some of it covers how the side windows can be down or could become deformed from a roll-over. For testing procedures the windows have to be pre-cracked or removed.
The Federal Registrar calls out side glazed windows in 49 CFR 571.226:
S1. Purpose and Scope. This standard establishes requirements for ejection mitigation systems to reduce the likelihood of complete and partial ejections of vehicle occupants through side windows during rollovers or side impact events.
and in 49 CFR 571.226 S4.2.1.1:
S4.2.1.1 No vehicle shall use movable glazing as the sole means of meeting the displacement limit of S4.2.1.
I anticipate that mid to higher end vehicles will have side glazed windows. While lower end vehicles will not.
If I remember the MythBusters episode your only other options are to roll down the windows immediately and then start to exit or wait for the car to completely submerge and hope the electronics that control your windows and doors haven’t failed.
New Teslas have laminated glass, not tempered glass. It does not shatter.
https://youtu.be/6tnEDH1HfD0?t=378
So they’re death traps
Gotcha
I’ve just learned that laminated glass is now mandatory across all models since 2020.
https://lifelinerescuetools.com/blog/3397/
After digging through the rule the NHTSA adopted, there’s nothing in there that mandates side glazed windows. The rule covers ejection mitigation. The summary hits the major point:
There’s a lot of discussion in there. The document is over 300 pages. Some of it covers how the side windows can be down or could become deformed from a roll-over. For testing procedures the windows have to be pre-cracked or removed.
The Federal Registrar calls out side glazed windows in 49 CFR 571.226:
and in 49 CFR 571.226 S4.2.1.1:
I anticipate that mid to higher end vehicles will have side glazed windows. While lower end vehicles will not.
Apparently it was because people’s arms (or even heads?) would hang out of the broken window when a car is rolling over at highway speeds.
If I remember the MythBusters episode your only other options are to roll down the windows immediately and then start to exit or wait for the car to completely submerge and hope the electronics that control your windows and doors haven’t failed.
I wonder how long the electronics last in the Tesla being submerged for the window to roll down.