ROLLOVER! ROLLOVER! ROLLOVER!
By Jim Wagner
One of the reasons I enjoy being in the military is that I learn a lot of things; things that I can teach in my Reality-Based Personal Protection system. One of those things is what to do if your vehicle is about to roll over as you are driving, which can be fatal if you don’t know what to do. I’ve been in a rollover once while I was off-roading recreationally. It was a frightening experience. So, what do you do if it is about to happen to you? Maybe you’re a bodyguard trying to evade a chase vehicle or you were just ambushed and you need to drive out of the Kill Zone.
Rollovers usually occur when the driver is going around a corner to fast or due to abrupt steering. It can also happen you are driving on a slope of 22 degrees or more.
If you are the driving and you feel that the car’s Center of Gravity (CG) is shifting, and you have passengers in the car with you, it is your responsibility to yell out loud three times, “ROLLOVER! ROLLOVER! ROLLOVER! Obviously, if you only have the chance to get one “ROLLOVER!” out of your mouth, it is better than nothing for you passengers.
Before the rollover you need to be wearing your seatbelt or your chances of survival are greatly diminished. Seatbelts keep you from being ejected from the vehicle, which is the number one cause of death in a rollover. You’re not going to worry about the seatbelt malfunctioning and you being trapped in your seat because you should always have a knife on your or your “rescue tool.” Even passenger aircraft in the United States are starting to allow small knives back onto planes, which could be used to cut your seatbelt after a crash, which could also be in the form of a rollover.
The next thing you need to do is let go of the steering wheel and brace your hands straight up against the ceiling of the vehicle, or if that is not possible then one hand against a vehicle pillar (the metal frame that holds the roof of the car) and something solid in the interior. The problem with holding onto the steering wheel once the wheels lift off of the ground is that you will not be able to control the steering anyway, and your arms could end up twisting and breaking as the vehicle starts colliding with the ground, especially if the vehicle is equipped with air bags and your arms are in the way of deployment. Once when I was chasing a murder suspect on the freeway I collided with the suspect’s car when he crashed into the guardrail. I had no choice but to hit him; it was either driving into the suspect’s car, the police car in front of me driving by Officer Coute, or a huge concrete pillar holding up a bridge. The bad guy left me no choice in that split second. When I collided with the suspect’s car the airbag deployed and it felt like getting hit in the face with a baseball bat. The amount of force was tremendous. The airbag saved my life, along with having my seatbelt on, and I was glad I did not have an arm in front of my face at the moment of impact. It was also because of this accident that I always drive now with my hands in the 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock positions, as opposed to the my old driver training before airbags where they recommended the 2 o’clock and 10 o’clock positions.
By bracing your arms against the ceiling or solid structures around you it helps to prevent your head being too loose and snapped. Your head becomes like a ball on a chain as the car rolls. Bracing tightens the muscles in the neck, shoulders, and back and perhaps your head will hit your deltoid muscle or bicep instead of the side window or support pillar when your body is violently jolted from side to side as the car rolls. Another technique you need to do the moment you go into a bracing position is to drop your chin down to your chest. This will help to immobilize the head. Again, you don’t want the “ball on a chain” whipping motion.
If by chance you are going to rollover anywhere near a body of water you need to yell out, “Water! Water! Water!” Yes, you’ve guessed it by now. Any threat of danger soldiers are taught to yell it out three times, like with a chemical agent approaching, “Gas! Gas! Gas!”
Of course, reading this article alone is not sufficient. You need to actually get into a vehicle and practice yelling out, “Rollover! Rollover! Rollover!” and then immediately going into a bracing position. Just this last weekend I taught my 10-year-old nephew Gary and my 9-year-old niece Manique this Rollover Survival technique while my brother-in-law was driving. We did it a couple of times while going to our location, and the children loved it. It’s a lot better use of their time than having them self-absorbed in a portable computer video game with their thumbs working like mad. Since I was not in my own vehicle, but in my brother-in-law’s vehicle, and not in the military HUMVEE or my own vehicle I trained in, it felt a little different, but I quickly fount the best bracing support position. The practice was just as valuable for me as it was the children.
In the Jim Wagner Reality-Based Personal Protection system we have many techniques that cover vehicle situations, and Rollover Survival is the latest addition so we can Be A Hard Target.
On April 13th I was called out of formation by my Commanding Officer. The colonel read the orders out loud to the four platoons. I was promoted from the rank of Staff Sergeant to Sergeant First Class; a senior non-commissioned officer position. Of course, with the new rank comes more responsibilities, but they are duties that I want to do. As a Reserve soldier it is an honor serving the State of California and the United States of America.
The rest of April was attending job related courses and security work. I also did a lot of preparation for Reality-Based Personal Protection courses coming up in May in France, Belgium, and Germany, but I’ll fill you in on that in the next newsletter that I will post.; some of it “breaking new ground.”
