Author(s): Keiichi Toda; Yasuyuki Baba; Taisuke Ishigakithi

Linked Author(s): Keiichi Toda, Yasuyuki Baba, Taisuke Ishigaki

Keywords: Urban Flooding; Partially Submerged Car; Evacuation Experiment; Real Size Model; Slide Type Door

Abstract: To investigate the difficulty of evacuation from partially submerged cars, evacuation experiments were conducted by using a real-size car model with a water tank. A small minivan with an open type front door and a slide type rear door was used. The front door dimensions were smaller than the rear ones. The water tank on the driver’s side was filled with water, and examinees tried to open the front and rear doors and to get out of the car. The experimental results indicate that the water depth of about 0.95m is the critical evacuation condition through the front door and about 0.75m is the critical one through the rear door. According to the previous study by using a sedan type car with open type doors, the water depth of 0.75 to 0.8m was the critical evacuation condition from a front door. From these findings, there is not much difference for evacuation difficulty between open type door and slide type one, and we cannot evacuate easily if the water depth reaches about 0.8m. Countermeasures to prevent water related car accidents are also discussed and proposed.

DOI:

Year: 2014