According to a recent survey of UK drivers, over half would risk their lives and vehicles by driving through dangerous flood water.
The AA and the Environment Agency commissioned the survey to raise awareness of the dangers that face drivers who take unnecessary flood related risks.
The results indicated that more than half of those surveyed would endanger themselves by driving through moving flood water. Of the total, more than a quarter of respondents would drive through moving flood water deeper than 30cm. The Environment Agency and the AA strongly advise drivers not to enter flood water that is flowing or happens to be more than 10cm deep.
In 2012, the second wettest on record in the UK, several motorists died as a result of flood-related accidents. In the same period, the AA rescued almost 9,000 vehicles that had driven through or were stuck in flood water with an estimated insurance bill of more than £34 million.
The survey found that more than two-fifths of drivers would blindly follow the vehicle in front if it had crossed a flooded road successfully. To compound the issue further a significant number of UK drivers would ignore a ‘road closed’ warning sign and drive down a flooded road rather than take a short detour – this is dangerous, an offence and insurers could reject any flood damage claim.
Facts:
- The Enviroment Agency provides a website with flood forecasts and information to help you plan ahead;
- it only takes a very small amount of ingested water to ruin a car engine;
- three-quarters of flooded cars are written-off;
- flood water can hide all manner of hazards, eg. uncovered manholes, fallen branches;
- just 30cm of moving water can float a car;
- flood water can carry disease.
Survey details:
The figure for the number of UK drivers that would ignore road closed signs and drive through flood water has been calculated based on the percentages in the survey being applied to the total number of driving licence holders in the UK, which currently stands at around 34 million.