Abandon cars if water tyre-high: Mumbai police

Mumbai rains are something that all Mumbaikars wait for, especially during Ganesh Chaturthi. Looks like they got a lot more than they asked for. The Mumbai police has advised people to abandon cars is the water is more than tyre-high.

Here’s why!

From today morning, Mumbai has received a huge amount of rainfall (about 300 mm so far). While this is ot as bad as the July 2005 floods (994 mm rainfall) which created havoc, it’s still something that the city is not equipped to deal with. Everything was disrupted, be it road/air or rail traffic.

Offices were advised to send people back home and schools were shut early. As the rains lashed the city, roads began to get clogged. Massive jams were reported across the city, some even lasting a few hours with people stationary. Low lying areas like Parel, Hindmata were severely affected with a lot of water logging.

Here’s videos of the situation there:

As you can see, the water levels are very high. A lot of cars got stranded due to the rising waters. People had no option but to leak their vehicles on the road and walk away as the levels rose. Dealerships too got flooded.

But why should you leave your car?

If it starts to rain and the water level rises, it is better for you to leave the vehicle. The main reason behind that is as the water level starts rising, chances of water entering the vehicle increase and also, there is a chance that the door locks and the power windows could stop working, causing people to get stuck in their vehicle.

Also, if your car is not on when stuck in water, chances of damage not happening to it are less. If your engine is shut, recovering the vehicle could be as easy as just changing the engine oil and the other fluids. Make sure not to start the car while under water though.

What to do if you’re stuck in your car with the doors jammed?

Break open the window and get out of the car, to the safest place possible. To break out of a stuck car, All you need is your car’s seat headrest. This is how you can use the seat’s headrest to break the window of a car.