Don't drive through floodwater

[Alben]

https://www.9news.com.au/national/nsw-floods-two-women-rescued-from-sinking-car-nimbin/39b54246-7901-4fd3-b5c1-1ee44c13297b

[Jasonmc73]

But the council web info said she was good to go

[Ian H]

Fools.

[Alex86]

Wow. That actually disappeared. I was not expecting that!

[Dicko1]

But the council web info said she was good to go

Even a half intelligent person would realise that conditions are constantly changing. The driver was a bloody idiot for even attempting this. I recently drove through floodwaters at 500mm deep near Ayr, Qld 2 weeks ago. Got stranded in Home Hill for 8 hours. Then had to spend a night in Innisfail due to flooding. Cops shut the road about 10 mins after I got through. The road was straight and water not fast flowing. Even then there were dickheads driving way too fast so as to create rooster tails of water. F wits, all of them...naturally a couple of P platers and young drivers. Road was not officially closed and after cops shut it there was still a time delay of 30mins before the general public knew. Sometimes common sense gets ousted and stupidity takes over.

[aussieintas]

Stupidity.......that's all!

[Jasonmc73]

Even a half intelligent person would realise that conditions are constantly changing. The driver was a bloody idiot for even attempting this. I recently drove through floodwaters at 500mm deep near Ayr, Qld 2 weeks ago. Got stranded in Home Hill for 8 hours. Then had to spend a night in Innisfail due to flooding. Cops shut the road about 10 mins after I got through. The road was straight and water not fast flowing. Even then there were dickheads driving way too fast so as to create rooster tails of water. F wits, all of them...naturally a couple of P platers and young drivers. Road was not officially closed and after cops shut it there was still a time delay of 30mins before the general public knew. Sometimes common sense gets ousted and stupidity takes over.

The problem was her submarine had no snorkel!!!!

This particular incedent just proves common sense is not that common?

They googled it & it was all good apparently

That is a really really dumb statement, maybe clutching at straws to justify the stupidity?

All jokes aside i'm glad these pair of idiot women were not hurt, this could have ended so different & was closer to tragedy than they may realise me thinks.
Lucky for them the vehicle went down the ditch evenly nose first or it wouldn't have been anythhing to laugh about.

[Alben]

obviously in this case it was floodwater, but is there a cut and dry definition of what is floodwater and what is just a large puddle when it comes to these things. I know almost anytime it rains at my place the street out the front goes under water for about 100m and can end up around 30cm deep. I appreciate people driving through it because it helps water my front lawn as the waves push up over it.

[dhula]

Being new to the area they checked with those that should know if the road is closed or open. Road was open according to latest info and no "road closed" signs so they dived in thinking all was OK.

Calling them idiots, fools, stupid etc is a bit on the harsh side I reckon. Unfortunate and unlucky that their car is underwater and at the same time lucky that noone was hurt is how I'd put it.

[Alben]

I think at the end of the day if you don't know how deep it is or what is under the surface you just shouldn't go through it. And what is under the surface can change at anytime in those types of floods with possible sink holes or roads collapsing.

[erad]

An important thing not brought up was the fact that they had a window open. If the car had gone into the water with windows closed, they would not have been able to open them and they would not get out the doors either until the car filled with water and equalised the pressures inside and out.

[BruceandBobbi]

Been living in outer western Sydney fo 8 years. This afternoon off to the local shopping centre for a coffee and chat. Went through 300mm of water and around 50 metres long over the road. Had never seen water there before but I knew the road as i drive it twice a day.


Coming back 1 1/2 hours later the body of water had increased to 100 metres in length.

Didn't risk it and took a detour.

Not worth the drama.

[GHendo]

This happened near where I live – the same creek runs through our property. Oh, and it is nowhere near Nimbin, as mentioned in the report.

As you can see from the “Google” photo I’ve attached, there is a big drop off the side where her car went down and the pressure of the water going over there would have been tremendous.

If she’d got out and tried walking into the water before crossing, she should have realized it wasn’t a good idea – you can see from the video of them walking out, the level of the water was up to their chests.

I brought our cattle across the creek earlier to get them up off the flat. The crossing I used (on our property) had water over the top of my rubber boot, so it was about 600mm. deep – that wasn’t the problem, it was the force of the current that presented a danger and I would have been hesitant about driving through, however the stockman with me drove his ute across without any problems.

The councils now seem to get jumpy very easily and start blocking-off roads – yet the one in this incident wasn’t closed. Most of the time they start closing very early when it is still possible to get through. We went into town on Friday (I think this incident happened on Saturday) and the websites, including the local newspaper, said the road to town was closed. We’ve lived here for the best part of 50 years and you get to know where will be flooded by the levels of the water in the paddocks and the creek. We though we’d get through ok, and when we drove in, there was no indication that the water had been anywhere near the sides of the road, so I don’t know where they got their information. The area where this lady was heading has a lot of new homes and people who have migrated from the city live there. Local experienced knowledge is what is needed in flood time and many of the imports probably lack this.

The big danger in driving through water, besides the current and the depth, is that you can’t see where you’re going, and imagine if that woman had been a bit off course and driven over a bit to the side where the big drop-off is – they would probably both be dead.

You just can’t barrel off into flooded water without investigating. Thinking back, I’ve been very lucky and got away with driving through a lot of flood water when I was younger – not in 4WDs either – just sedans. Nowadays I’m much more careful and tend to let discretion be the better part of valor.

Geoff

[Dicko1]

Its not only the depth and current. How do you know that what was once a small pot hole has not now become a very large pothole with deep sides and breaking up more and more as the water gets faster? You see photos of roads that have only had 500mm of water over them but the shoulders have collapsed leaving dangerous drop offs that cannot be seen in dirty water flow.

[GHendo]

Its not only the depth and current. How do you know that what was once a small pot hole has not now become a very large pothole with deep sides and breaking up more and more as the water gets faster? You see photos of roads that have only had 500mm of water over them but the shoulders have collapsed leaving dangerous drop offs that cannot be seen in dirty water flow.

That's exactly right Dicko - that's why I was very wary about driving over the crossing on our flat the other day - I know what's there and it could have been eroded.

Geoff