What Can Happen When I Drive Through Water?

If you've ever wondered "What can happen when I drive through water?", well this video shows one possibility.

Notice how the car starts to hydroplane when the water gets deep enough to build up under the tires.  (This happens because the driver was driving to fast.  The tires begin to "ski")  Once the hydroplaning starts, torque turns the car sideways and the driver spins out of control.

It is at this point that the driver makes the second mistake: driving into standing water of unknown depth.  Instead of making a 3-point turn to remain on the roadway, the driver assumes that the water isn't deep enough to damage the car, and ends up driving into a ditch.

What happened to the car?  Well, more than likely, the air intake on the engine sucked up some water and killed the engine.  Dead.  As in:  it needs to be repaired or replaced.  Also, water will be inside the car, in the electronics/carpet/seats, etc.  It is quite possible that the car will be written off as a total loss.

Remember: when there is standing water on the road, allow common sense to prevail.

Check out the video:

(Facebook/Fox13)