Translation:  Help me! I’m drowning!

How pointy are your elbows?  Can you knock someone’s eye out with them?  Are they registered as deadly weapons with Homeland Security?  Do you think your elbow could knock a car window out, say in a water emergency?  Statistics have shown that more than 10,000 individuals are in a water-related accident each and every year.  At least 300 people die, trapped in their cars - under water - on an annual basis.

Granted, some deaths are because of a jammed seat belt, but more often than not, the death is because the door couldn’t be opened, or the window rolled down.  In cars with manual windows, that’s not so much of an issue, but in newer cars with electric windows, once the electrical system is shorted out, the window can’t be rolled up or down.  And the car’s occupant has to wait (and wait and wait) until the pressure on the inside of the car is equal to the pressure on the outside of the car.  What that means is that the car has to fill up with water until you can open the door.  Most people will panic long before that happens, and use what little oxygen they’ve got in the car.

Unless you’re Steve Austin (either Stone Cold or the Six Million Dollar Man-your choice) your elbows will probably not be strong enough to break out a car window.  So how will you get out?  Well, there are several very handy, portable (i.e. attachable to a key chain) gadgets that may just be able to save your life.  With any one of them, you just punch out the window as you’ve learned from whichever gadget you buy, and swim to safety (your goal is up).

So maybe you don’t want to waste money on a key chain that you might never ever have to use.  But it’s so cute, and a sure conversation starter, so why the heck not buy one?  Because you never ever know.