Car Fires and Vehicle Submersion: How Common are They?

Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

If you watch action movies, you see it all the time. Cars exploding into a ball of flames just after the hero crawls out. Or cars crashing into something and flying into water while the hero fights his way out — or holds his breath and hides while being shot at, you know, depending on the movie.

But in real life, how often do car crashes result in a car fire or submersion in water?

Actually, not that often.

This refutes the claim some people make that wearing a seat belt can actually be more dangerous than not wearing one in a crash. It may be true to say there are types of accidents that might be more difficult to get out of quickly when you’re restrained by a seat belt, mainly those that result in car fires or water submersion.

But the odds of either of those results are very small, especially compared to the plethora of other crash scenarios. And you first have to survive the crash in a condition that allows you to escape the water or fire.

So what percentage of crashes end in a fiery ball or a mass of sinking metal? Less than one-half of 1% of all car accidents resulting in injury involve being submersed in water or engulfed in flame.

Plus, if you are unrestrained during a crash, the likelihood of having a severe injury from the crash that incapacitates the passenger preventing that passenger from being able to get out quickly is much higher. So definitely wear that seat belt.

So let’s look at these two scary but remote crash results more closely.

Car Fires

It’s true, historically, vehicle fires used to be quite common. Back in 1980 there were 456,000 car fires. In 1978 a big issue occurred with Pintos catching on fire. This led to car manufacturers looking at design changes in vehicles to limit the three elements of the fire triangle (heat, fuel, oxygen) from coming together.

Cars bursting into flames after a crash is a pretty rare event. Some say EV car fires are common so are becoming an issue. However, EV FireSafe, an Australian firm, maintains a database of global incidents of EV fires. It recorded fewer than 400 verified battery fires in passenger EVs between 2010 and June 2023.

According to the National Fire Protection Association, of the 174,000 vehicle fires in 2015:

• 49% were due to mechanical failure or malfunction
• 11% were due to leaks or breaks
• 23% were due to electrical failures
• 5% were due to the vehicle being exposed to another type of fire
• 3% were due to a car crash or rollover
  (the remaining causes were not listed)

Looking at all the data, if you keep the vehicle well maintained, car fires are possible but not likely.

Car Fires with a Crash

There are about 5.5 million reported crashes per year. (Up to 10 million more go unreported. “The majority of these unreported crashes involve only minor property damage and no significant personal injury,” according to NHTSA. If your car was totaled from fire or water submersion, you’d probably report it.)

If there are 174,000 (2015 number) car fires from which only 3% are caused by crashes, according to the National Fire Protection Association. That means roughly 5,220 crashes end in car fires or 0.0949% of all car crashes result in fire.

The National Fire Protection Association says from 2003 to 2007 there was an annual average of 480 fatalities from car fires. Only 3% of the fires were caused by collision or rollover but these accounted for 58% of the fatalities or 283 deaths. During that period total number fatalities from car crashes averaged 42,500 (the number was 35,092 in 2015). A car fire was a contributing factor but not necessarily primary cause of death in 0.66% of fatal crashes and only 0.0051% of all car crashes.

Realize the statistics don’t say if the fire caused the death or if the occupant had suffered other fatal injuries during the crash.

While full-out explosions are super rare because of the design of the engine and components, that’s not to say you shouldn’t get out of a burning car quickly. Cars will burn quite happily once they get going. Once the plastic and foam inside a car start burning, they’ll burn hot and intense for some time. The flame-retardant on these materials might slow the spread and offer a little time but they will ignite with enough exposure.

Fires in EV cars, however, present unique challenges, as EV fires burn at a hotter temperature, releases flammable gasses, runs the risk of reignition even after being extinguished, and are not extinguishable using a traditional fire extinguisher.

Submersed Vehicles

Car crashes where water submersion was the main factor make up less than 1% of traffic fatalities nationwide, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration figures.

Five states have the most submerged vehicles: Florida, California, Texas, Louisiana and North Carolina. Many people in those states feel it’s common enough to drive with a window punch and seat belt cutters.

But how common is it?

Gerald Dworkin, a professional Aquatics Safety and Water Rescue Consultant for Lifesaving Resources Inc, told the Orlando Sentinel he estimates some 1,200 to 1,500 vehicles wind up in the water in the United States every year.

Again there are about 5.5 million reported crashes per year. If there are 1,500 (high estimate) vehicles that end up submerged in water; that means 0.0273% of all car crashes result in vehicle submersion.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) Fatality Analysis Reporting System says from 2004 to 2007 there was an annual average of 384 traffic fatalities in which accidental drowning was listed as one of the causes of death.

During that period total number fatalities from car crashes averaged 42,500 (the number was 35,092 in 2015). Drowning was a contributing factor but not necessarily primary cause of death in 0.9% of fatal crashes and only 0.0069% of all car crashes.

This means it’s not necessarily that the occupant couldn’t free himself from the seat belt or car and therefore drowned. The occupant may have sustained a fatal injury or lost consciousness prior to entering the water.

Other Factors to Consider

In 2015 there were 35,092 fatalities from car crashes. That means of the roughly 5.5 million reported car crashes in the U.S. only 0.63% result in a fatality, assuming there’s only one fatality per crash. If a crash is severe enough for one fatality there was likely more than one fatality so that percentage could be less.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety reports an average of 1,042 children 12 or under (or 2.45% of fatal crashes or 0.019% of all crashes) were killed in car crashes in 2015.

According to NHTSA, nearly half (48%) of those killed were unrestrained. (So wear your seat belt, you’ll have much better odds.)

An during flooding, never drive through water. The depth of the flood water can be hard to determine and even shallow water can sweep a vehicle away. “The inside of a vehicle is not a safe place to be during a flood. The pressure from water against the doors and windows can trap passengers inside,” said Janette Fennell, president of Kids and Car Safety.

What about children in car fires or drowning in cars?

How many of these two types of crashes involve children? It’s hard to say. We were unable to find any statistics that specified children involved in these types of car crashes.

During the years included in the vehicle submersion study, about 1,100 children died annually. This represents .02% of all crashes that involved child fatalities.

So first, your crash would have to be one of the .02% of car crashes that involve children. Then it would have to be one of the 0.0069% that involve a water fatality or the 0.0051% that involve fire fatalities.

The odds are extremely slim though certainly not impossible.

Protecting Our Children

When considering how to protect our children and with what car seat, we have to take into account risk factors, look at the odds and do our best to reduce the odds in the most common circumstances. For instance, most car crashes are frontal impact and most crashes occur at less than 30mph. So federal standards require crash testing car seats for frontal impacts at 30mph.

Download our report: Common Car Seat Mistakes and How to Fix Them

What if We Find Our Self in one of these types of crashes?

The first key to survival is stay calm. Easier said than done.

As airline attendants say during their safety briefing, “If you are traveling with a child or someone who requires assistance, secure your mask on first, and then assist the other person.” This goes for a car fire or vehicle submersion too. You have to be able to get yourself out before you can help your children.

If you are in a car fire or submersed in water, obviously get everyone out as fast as possible. Experts say one minute is all the time you have to exit a sinking vehicle safely before the water pressure against the windows becomes too great to get out.

And Submersion?

Dr. Gordon Giesbrecht from the University of Manitoba studied submersion accidents and tested various exit strategies. He recommends this order:

1. Seatbelt: Unbuckle your seat belt
2. Window: Open window before it’s all the way under water. If the window is covered by water, the water exerts pressure on the side windows then you won’t be able to open or break the window.
   • A rescue device, like a Resqme tool, can be helpful but again not after the vehicle is fully submerged and there is still air in the car. Giesbrecht says the device will not break the window until the car is full of water too and the pressure is then equalized. So break it before the car is fully under water.
   • Giesbrecht also says for the device to be helpful it needs to be visible and within reach of the driver, like hanging from the rear view mirror.
3. Out: Get out (kids first, see more below)

And getting a child out?

According to Giesbrecht, if you have children in the car, you unbuckle the kids and push them out the window, before you get out of the car yourself. He advises if you have more than one child in the car, to start with the oldest. The older children can help with the younger ones or swim to the surface on their own.

Giesbrecht says it’s very important to get the children out of the car before you exit the vehicle. Once you are out, it is extremely difficult to reach back in and try to free your children.

As for releasing the child from a car seat in a car fire or submerged vehicle situation? In lieu of car seats having some sort of emergency release, Giesbrecht recommends practicing unbuckling your child from the chest clip and harness straps with your eyes closed.

In Europe, standards require a 1-step quick release from car seats. This is why the RideSafer vest has flexible seat belt guides. Parents can unbuckle the seat belt and pull the child, the seat belt will release from the flexible guides releasing the child.

But the fastest way to release a child in either of these situations, fire or water, and no matter what type of child restraint is used, is by cutting the seat belt or harness straps of the child restraint. (In addition to a window punch, the Resqme tool also is a seat belt cutter.)

If emergency personnel have any immediate challenge to removing a child (or an adult) they will cut the seat belt.

We want to know. Have you practiced getting your children out of their child restraint in less than 30 seconds with your eyes closed in preparation for a car fire or vehicle submersion? Share your comments below.

By Amie Durocher, Creative Director at Safe Ride 4 Kids and certified CPS Tech since 2004

Copyright 2025 Safe Ride 4 Kids. All rights reserved. You may not publish, broadcast, rewrite or redistribute this material without permission. You are welcome to link to Safe Ride 4 Kids or share on social media.

We originally published this post in August 2017. We updated the article for accuracy and comprehensiveness.