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A Man from Houston Drives His Car Underwater on Live TV, Sinks It

If you're living in Texas, then this piece of information will be completely redundant, but for all those who haven't been paying attention to the news lately, the southern state is facing some of the worst floods in history.
Honda Insight sinking 1 photo
Photo: Screenshot from YouTube
Some regions have been almost completely shut down, having received over a foot of rain in the last 24 hours. The capital city of Houston is among the badly affected areas, its residents having been instructed to remain indoors and avoid road travel whenever possible.

While one foot of water may not sound like much, it all needs to be put into context. For one thing, flash floods are extremely dangerous because the large quantities of water coming in such a short time generate rapidly moving torrents, which can be surprisingly powerful. Up until now, there were five flood-related casualties reported across the state, but that number might increase over the next days.

The cities are supposed to deal with these situations better because of the sewage system, but if that fails, the abundance of concrete and limited exposed ground can turn certain areas into veritable bath tubs. An underpass with concrete walls seems like the perfect example, and that's exactly where Steve Campion, a reporter for Houston's Eyewitness News (very appropriate name) went to air a live update on the weather and the traffic issues it generated.

As Steve got ready for his intervention, his camera man was focusing on a car on the far side of the underpass that was almost completely sunk under water. Steve, however, was more intrigued by a black Honda Insight that was just next to them. Its driver wanted to get on the other side, and he couldn't care less about the fact that the Honda engineers didn't bother to make his hybrid amphibious.

So he just marches slowly into the large body of water. Faced with such stupidity, Steve is lost for words. The Insight goes nose down and starts to drift uncontrollably. You can see the driver first apply the brakes and then switch into reverse, but at this time what he needed was a propeller and a rudder. Nothing he could do now, as between the tires and the road surface were a few inches of water.

When we first see the man, it's clear he's either in some sort of shock, or he's a bit drunk. He asks the two who are still on dry land what to do, and they tell him to just leave the car and swim. He doesn't seem convinced, but as the car continues to go down, he realizes there's nothing else he can do, so he starts swimming towards Steve and his colleague. Probably realizing this could be his moment of fame, Steve goes into the water to help the disoriented man.

The driver's excuse was that he "didn't see it," which, even though he's wearing glasses, is kind of hard to believe. Steve cuts in and asks him whether he didn't think the water was that deep, to which he hastily replies affirmatively. But his real concern is clearly the car: "My car is under." Steve is pretty blunt about that: "Yeah, you gotta leave the car." There's an awkward silence for a few seconds, after which they both start making it towards the camera.

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About the author: Vlad Mitrache
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"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
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