Can you get locked IN a car?

I guess I never thought about this, but according to a story in the local news today, a woman "kicked her way out the window" of her car after it was hit by lightning, claiming electric lock failure made opening the doors from the inside not possible.

http://www.woodtv.com/dpp/news/local/kent_county/Lightning-hits-car-dutton-township-040312

This perplexed me... though I realize I've always owned older cars with either a manual lock mechanism, or a combination of electric/manual lock switches. Even my VW which has just a "peg" type manual lock that goes flush with the door panel when locked (making it near impossible to pull up by hand) has a manual over-ride by just opening the door handle itself.

Aside from child safety locks, or being in a car sustaining physical damage, could an electric default in most modern cars result in the driver/passengers being stuck inside their car??

I my cars if the electric locks fail. Trying to open the door will automatically unlock them. Hell the power locks in my mustang gave up the ghost a long time ago. There is no key hole on the pax side so that is how I let in my girlfriend. Classy Right.

You shouldn't be able to period, otherwise the automaker would have a huge lawsuit on their hands.

But, saying that, I worry about that with the C6 Corvette and anything that has a "button" for a door handle.

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: You shouldn't be able to period, otherwise the automaker would have a huge lawsuit on their hands. But, saying that, I worry about that with the C6 Corvette and anything that has a "button" for a door handle.

the c6 has an emergency release handle.

I've worked on a few European cars that don't have the manual override in the door handle. I can see getting stuck in one of those

I read that earlier. I think it was panicked woman who didn't try the handle

edit: Problem solved

You can, of course, get stuck inside the car if it's hit and the door jams shut. I keep a pocketknife made for EMTs and Law Enforcement inside my center console, it has a carbide glass breaker and a seatbelt cutter on it, so if worse comes to worse I can get out of the car.

Wasn't the Rover SD1 famous for locking people in the car?

Cotton wrote:

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: You shouldn't be able to period, otherwise the automaker would have a huge lawsuit on their hands. But, saying that, I worry about that with the C6 Corvette and anything that has a "button" for a door handle.

the c6 has an emergency release handle.

Yeah I wasn't sure about that. I wasn't exactly looking for one while I was driving it.

Did it mention a hair color on the woman?

It's also possible the lightning may have damaged the lock mechanism.

Yes, you can get locked in a car. It happened to me.

I was 1.

I can think of several vehicles that have electric only locking mechanisms with no mechanical actuation. So yea, I can see it happening.

The new Vette's are all electronic. Button operated doors inside and out. Had one come in with a dead battery, my tech turned it off and boom, locked himself in. It was great...

I think most modern cars can actually lock people inside. I know this happened with the Toyota Avalon and RX8 my girlfriend owned/owns. If someone was in the car and you locked it with the key fob it wouldn't allow anyone inside the car to unlock it, even with the mechanical latch/lock mechanism (there was actually a solenoid that would re-lock the door as soon as you tired to unlock it). Apparently this is to keep people from breaking in to the car, but yeah...

I guess if the car lost all power under that situation then you could unlock the car from the inside because the solenoid wouldn't re-lock the door.

A guy on the Europa list said: Can I bore you with a personal experience with the door locks? .OK, I will anyway. I was messing with the headliner in 4525R sitting in the driver's seat. The car was in winter hibernation and there was no battery in it. It was parked next to one of the posts in my garage in such a way that the passenger seat could not be opened. The windows were closed. I finished what I was doing and went to get out of the car and noticed that I had bumped the door lock into the locked position. I went to unlock it and I heard a "tink" sound and the latch went limp. The little circlip that goes on the other end of the actuation rod had fallen off. I was totally screwed.the only way out was to open the driver's door from the outside and with the closed electric windows and no battery that was not happening. My kids were away for the day and my wife was inside sewing something with the stereo blasting away. I yelled at the top of my lungs for a few minutes and knowing the futility decided to wait for a quiet moment. It did not come for 5 hours at which time my wife came looking for me wanting to know if I wanted to have dinner. She wanted to know if I was freaking out. "No, I knew that at some point you would come looking to make sure I was not dead and I was pretty sure that moment would occur before I starved. Besides, I could punch my way out at any time. It's a Lotus." I got a nice nap out of it anyway and I was grateful that this particular adventure in Lotus-land started with an empty bladder. .and this will never ever happen to me again. For those of you that have heard the story before.Sorry.

There are multiple cars that will automatically re-lock the door and sound the alarm if you unlock the car from the inside without the key in the ignition. Prevents the coat hanger method of breaking into cars. So yes you could technically get out of one of those if locked in, but you have to time the door handle pull in one of those 1/8th second windows before the car re-locks itself.

You can get locked in the back of a Crown Vic...

Don't ask...

Conquest351 wrote: The new Vette's are all electronic. Button operated doors inside and out. Had one come in with a dead battery, my tech turned it off and boom, locked himself in. It was great...

Your tech should have read the manual

The door release opens the doors like this (see page 2-11 in the owners manual):

If power to the vehicle or the keyless access transmitter is lost, there are two ways to open the door. From inside the vehicle, use the door release handle located on the floor next to each seat. Pull the handle up to unlock and unlatch the door. From outside the vehicle, use the door release tab located on the carpet inside the trunk on the driver’s side of the vehicle. Pull the tab to unlock and unlatch the driver’s door. See Hatch/Trunk on page 2-14 for information on opening the trunk during a loss of power.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=family%20guy%20locked%20in%20car&source=video&cd=2&sqi=2&ved=0CEQQtwIwAQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D6kSdvJ0Xhhs&ei=bFt7T462OMPg2QXSovT-Ag&usg=AFQjCNGijyu2JmHBe0YfMCMacoLWiYIfEw

Yes you can.

many european cars have the ability to "double lock" the doors.. this disables the interior handles.

J308 wrote: You can get locked in the back of a Crown Vic... Don't ask...

well any rear doors can be disabled. it called child safety lock

or you were arrested again

Streetwiseguy wrote:

My friend got stuck in his a few years back. Took it out of the garage for the first time in a few years, and had to jump the battery to start it. Went down the road, the rust in the fuel tank met the carb, and he's coasting to the curb, stuck in the car with no power, no electricity, and no cell phone. It took about 45 minutes on a busy street before someone realize he was trapped.

A former boss of mine got locked in his c6 after a night of drinking. He apparently slept in the passenger seat with the radio on and his battery went flat. He called for roadside assistance to give him a jump, when he sobered up the next day.

He looked awfully embarrassed when I showed him where the emergency door handle was.