Locked in the Car and Unable to get Out - Food for Thought

[Torvy]

My guess here is that unlocking from the inside was possible, but explaining how to a stressed elderly person would be less productive than just jumping the car.

My cars with electric locks have a manual lock near the latch. Just flip them over.

I do remember there being a few stressed out people in the early days of electric locks when the lock "knob" went into the door (to prevent theft). You couldn't pull it up like you could with the manual ones.

 

[BnRidge]

All the cars I have seen with batteries in the trunk have jumper terminals under the hood.

And all of the cars that I've seen do not have batteries in trunk. Fun way to learn.

 

[Eagle1]

Back in the day we would relocate batteries to the trunk (usually 2) to put the weight where it was wanted. Then run 00 cables to the front to provide enough juice when you popped the accessory belt(s) off.

 

[Gordon Gould]

All of our Chevy's from 2000 on turn the headlights lights off after a few minutes if you leave them on with the engine not running.

We found out the hard way that they say on forever unless you open the door. The door starts the timer. At least on a CRV. We drove down to the Boston area to pick the daughter up coming off the Logan Express. Started in the fog and had the lights on then forgot about it. Got to Logan Express, parked, and turned motor off. Just sat in the car and ate our lunch while we waited - we were plenty early. Battery died - needed a jump to get going.

gg

 

[KennyG]

And all of the cars that I've seen do not have batteries in trunk. Fun way to learn.

It's becoming more common with the congestion under the hood. Especially with hybrids that do not use the 12 volt battery as a starter battery. As I understand it, most hybrids won't start with a dead 12 volt battery simply because it powers the controls.

 

[bmg88201]

I have friend that has a late model Jaguar ( it’s a piece of crap by the way ) and in order to remove the battery you have to remove the left front wheel and inner wheel liner and the left front shock. A complete idiotic design.

 

[alexpops]

I ran into a similar problem with a 2019 Traverse during Hurricane Ian. As the water rose, it set off the "unauthorized Entry" alarm and locked the doors and then either the water shorted out the remote lock or the BCM disabled the key fob. Couldn't get into it via doors or hatch or back window. Couldn't remote start either it to move it to higher ground and couldn't get under the hood to disconnect the battery to prevent stuff from shorting worse. By the time I got tools to pull the cover plate off the only exterior lock (drivers side front door) ... water was over the rockers & I would have let in way more water than the weatherstrip was letting in. The battery eventually died as the water kept rising while the horn was beeping/the lights were flashing and the wipers were running and just before it was completely dead, the car unlocked itself. New battery after the fact, and tons of codes/no crank/no communication ... At a minimum shorted BCM and probably more. Thank God it wasn't an EV since those were burning when the batteries got flooded.

 

[Gordon Gould]

All I can say about the comments on dementia etc is that this lady may be in her sixties but she has all her wits about her and totally able to take care of her self. A strong independent country woman. She would not have any trouble understanding the dealers instructions on how to open the door if there was a way. Maybe the dealer had no clue - seems more likely to me.

gg

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Didn't some elderly man die in a new Corvette a few years ago for the same reason? He was locked in the car and couldn't get out, and baked to death in the hot sun?

I seem to remember lawsuits flew over that one?

Thought that was a blond in a convertible.

 

[bmg88201]

I agree about the dealer, I just bought a new Tacoma and had question about some things and the salesman was clueless, I asked the service manager and his advice was incorrect. Cars are too complicated, there is so much technology in a car that they have to add more technology to help with distractions from the technology, like Blindside monitoring, Lane deviation alert, precollision braking etc.