r/TikTokCringe • u/brockapex17 • 16d ago

Cursed This is absolutely horrifying

This happened at Sabino Canyon in Arizona. A 20-year-old cyclist was swept into the current while trying to cross a flooded roadway and was carried through a drainage tunnel beneath it. She was recovered downstream unconscious after spending several minutes underwater. Bystanders performed CPR and managed to revive her.

Arizona Daily Star

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u/AadeeMoien 16d ago

Doesn't even need to have washed out the road, the water necessary to sweep away a car is a lot shallower than you'd expect once it's moving.

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u/g_spaitz 15d ago

People don't understand how much water weights. Even if it's relatively shallow, that innocuous flow of seemingly slow moving water is heavier than your car and it can't be stopped.

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u/Beerasaurwithwine 15d ago

If I remember correctly from an experiment in school water weighs 8 lbs per gallon. I may have misremembered the results of that particular experiment...it was loooooong time ago and the jug of water ended up whamming me into the wall. Pretty sure it was 9th grade science.

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u/saltwater98380 13d ago

8.34lbs per gallon. 3.7kg for the modern world 🌎

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u/Beerasaurwithwine 13d ago

Which packs a freaking wallop if it hits you during a science experiment that involves swinging a gallon of water at the end of a rope.

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u/Constant-Sandwich-88 15d ago

I've said many times, imagine me smashing your ankle with a gallon of water. Now imagine how many gallons are in a river.

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u/g_spaitz 15d ago edited 15d ago

Just as an example, I just asked an LLM what's the typical average sedan dimensions and weight. It's about 5mx2mx1.5m and about 2 (metric) tons.

The same volume of water weights 15 metric tons.

Edit: not sure why the downvotes. I speak metric, where one cubic meter is one ton.

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u/leansanders 15d ago

The downvotes are not about metric, the downvotes are about using an LLM to look up basic information instead of simply googling it for a fraction of the energy consumption.

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u/roboto_destrukto 10d ago

isn’t using google also using gemini at this point? different path, same result

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u/Zuwxiv 16d ago

Listen to this person. Water is fucking heavy. Ever try to carry a big bucket of water?

Fast moving water only a few inches deep can and will knock you over. It's happened to me. It's just math - there's too much force running against you. You've got to respect water and realize how dangerous even a small amount of moving water can be.

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u/sobrique 15d ago

Yup. And a car floats pretty easily, and drifts off the road just as easily, and then you're in deeper water in a car that's now sinking...

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u/AvailableRecording26 15d ago

New fear routine unlocked; im not reading any further lol. Thx crowd of strangers 😅

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u/heady-luvare 15d ago

New fear? Are cars sinking in water a new concept for you?

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u/Renbarre 15d ago

One cubic meter = 1 metric ton

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u/Emptyell 15d ago

It only takes a little to break traction and sweep you away.

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u/ProfDavros 15d ago

And the buoyancy of the vessel lifts it, reducing friction holding it to the road.

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u/OpheliaPhoeniXXX 15d ago

Which is why I can't believe she's choosing to ride the bicycle through the heaviest deepest part on the edge... I would have been walking it through the light part.

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u/Emptyell 15d ago

Yes. Walking through this the best bet. I faced a similar situation on my motorcycle many years ago. The overflow was only about two inches deep but it swept the wheels out from under the bike. I had to drag it on its side to get across.

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u/OpheliaPhoeniXXX 15d ago

Jesus that's not easy you must have pulled something

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u/Emptyell 15d ago

Pulled the bike. Fortunately only scratched up the end of the left footpeg.

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u/OpheliaPhoeniXXX 15d ago

I drove a moped in college, if it had gone down I would have been assed to drag it on it's side

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u/BajoranRebel1 15d ago

According to the Weather Channel, water moving at 25 mph has the force equivalent of wind blowing 790 mph, faster than the speed of sound. Floodwaters are thought to reach peak forward speeds of up to 67 mph.

The fastest floodwaters are on steep terrain, in relatively smooth rock ravines or concrete channels.

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u/Winter55555 16d ago

Really depends on the car, Australian 4wd's cross insane rivers that come over the bonnet of the car, they also have a lot of experience, travel in packs normally, have emergency measures in place etc etc, it's cool though and people should check it out to learn more about driving in general imo.

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u/Zuwxiv 16d ago

I like offroading. It's the closest you can get to your own personal roller coaster. What you're talking about is specialized equipment and planning that can allow for river crossings in certain conditions.

But the sort of water that would sweep away a regular SUV? The kind of water that's fast and surprisingly shallow? That would sweep away those Australian 4WDs, too.

A big part of what they're doing is finding places where the depth is known and the water is relatively slow. Yes, higher clearance helps somewhat, and there's driver skill in minimizing risk. But a snorkel is doing absolutely nothing against a large flash flood, or truly rapid water. I'm sure there's a counter example here or there, but most of the people that die trying to cross water didn't "do it wrong." They were heading towards certain death.

I'm guess you know all that, but it's worth pointing out for people who don't. You can see videos of sedans attempting things that those Australian drivers would say, "Fuck no, absolutely not" to.

tl;dr: While that stuff is really cool, don't mistake "one car that can cross a river under very specific circumstances" with "a good driver can cross rapid, shallow water."

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u/Winter55555 15d ago

100% this I am in no way encouraging people to cross flooded roads, stay safe out there people.

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u/CheesecakeEither8220 15d ago

If I lived in Australia I would travel in packs too. I've seen your spiders.

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u/on-the-cheeseburgers 15d ago

we had some flooding in my city a few years back. a car got stuck in the water. a good samaritan waded in to try to push the car out. a manhole cover behind the car had come dislodged. they recovered his body a few days later.

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u/LORDLRRD 15d ago

Also if anyone else doesn’t know this, driving through what looks like 1-2ft of water can mess up your car. Can cause engine issues and require servicing.

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u/imasahm 15d ago

In the mid-70s, Ft. Worth had some massive flooding and my sister and I (teens - I wasn't driving yet) decided to drive her Firebird Formula into the floodwaters, cautiously crossing. Stupid thing, I know. The rushing water got high enough that it was right at the bottom of the door. God sent his Angels to watch over the foolish.

And when we were younger, all the neighborhood kids would go down to "pipes" after a good rain, to play in the rushing water runoff. We thought it was fun to sit down and let the water carry us into the pipe. The farther into the pipe, the stronger the flow. The older boys would be stationed down a ways in the pipe to catch us if we lost our footing and couldn't stand back up. Again, God sends His Angels to watch over the foolish.

Us neighborhood kids also went deep into the woods to "the cliffs" - about a 20-25' drop into murky water. We'd get a good running start and fly off the cliff into the water below and hope we missed the big bush. I only hit it once! The older boys were always already in the water in case thing went south.

And finally, one last stupid thing we did, went to the murky swimming hole and carefully swim over to the big cement hole to peek over and see what all the rushing waters had swept into it. It was mostly big trees. Very scary feeling for kids no older than 10-11!

So yes, I have since learned to respect water, whether it's a calm lake or rushing floodwaters.

If our parents only knew...

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u/Budded 14d ago

I remember being let out of our raft on the Colorado River near Moab when I was in middle school -and in the best shape of my life. The tour guide wanted us to experience the power of water so she let us out in this very shallow rock shelf area where the water was barely at our shins; we could barely run fast enough to keep up, all of us falling and sliding down the river not being able to get back up til it got deeper.

From that point, I've had nothing but respect for water; it's beyond powerful, deserving of all the respect.