Engineering Students Develop Roof-Exit Technology to Help Passengers Escape Drowning Vehicles

2026-06-08 04:40:57 Technology

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Chennai/Mumbai, June 8, 2026: Incidents of cars getting trapped in flooded urban roadways and underpasses are increasing across urban India. A team of engineering faculty members and student researchers at SSN College of Engineering has developed a safety mechanism that could significantly improve survival chances during such emergencies.

The innovation, titled ‘Improved Escape Worthiness of Car Occupants Under Drowning Environment’, introduces a roof-opening escape system designed to activate when a vehicle begins to submerge in water, addressing a critical safety gap where conventional car doors often fail to open due to external water pressure.

The innovation has been developed by Dr S. Suresh Kumar, Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, along with student researchers B. Vishal and Neil Ashwin Raj, highlighting SSN’s focus on student-led, application-driven engineering research.

Vehicle especially cars submersion incidents, whether caused by floods, accidents near water bodies, or extreme weather conditions, can turn fatal, as passengers are often unable to open doors or find viable exit routes within a limited time window. The innovation developed at SSN aims to significantly improve survival chances by creating a larger and more accessible escape path.

In many drowning scenarios, passengers are left with only a narrow window to escape, as rising water levels and pressure differences make door operation nearly impossible. Existing vehicle designs offer limited alternatives, often leaving occupants trapped inside. The invention can also be used by the occupants to come out of the burning car with doors jammed. This invention will act as an additional way to rescue the occupants from the crumbled car.

The SSN-developed system uses a combination of sensors and a pneumatically controlled mechanism to detect submersion conditions and trigger the opening of the vehicle’s roof at an early stage. By enabling a wider and more accessible exit point, the system is designed to support faster evacuation for all occupants, including those seated in the rear.

Unlike conventional approaches that rely on smaller openings or electrically dependent systems, the design focuses on early activation and a non-explosive hybrid control mechanism, ensuring safer and more reliable operation under high-risk conditions.

The technology has undergone extensive validation, including Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations and full-scale real-time testing on a modified vehicle. The prototype was tested across multiple conditions such as flat sinking, side tilt, and nose-diving scenarios, where it demonstrated consistent performance.

Dr S. Suresh Kumar said, “In drowning scenarios, time is extremely limited and conventional escape routes often fail. This innovation focuses on improving escape accessibility under such conditions, with the aim of enhancing passenger safety in real-world situations.”

The team is now exploring opportunities for further development and industry collaboration to assess integration into future automotive safety systems, particularly for regions prone to flooding and water-related hazards.

About SSN Institutions

SSN Institutions is the first initiative of Mr. Shiv Nadar in the field of education. Established in 1996, SSN CE is located on Old Mahabalipuram Road, spread over 230 acres with a built-up area of over 2.1 million square feet, featuring state-of-the-art infrastructure for learning and cutting-edge research. SSN is ranked 46th in Engineering category as per NIRF 2024 and 81st in the overall category. It is the only affiliated institution in the top 50 rankings. Accredited by NAAC and all eligible courses are accredited by the National Board of Accreditation (NBA). The college has received several accolades, including Gold STARS rating by AASHE (only higher education institution in India), the Green Campus Platinum certificate from the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) (first higher education institution in India), the Clarivate India Research Excellence - Citation Awards in the College category. Additionally, it received the IEI Engineering Education Excellence (Platinum) Award for being the Best Engineering College/Institution. The total student strength is 4,700 and it has over 20,800 alumni. SSN has one of the highest percentages of Ph.D. holders in its faculty among all private educational institutions. SSN Institutions currently also comprise SSN School of Management, SSN School of Advanced Career Education, SSN Research Center and the SSN Incubation Foundation.

About Shiv Nadar Foundation

Established in 1994, by Shiv Nadar, Founder, HCL - a US$13.8 billion leading global technology enterprise, the Foundation is committed to the creation of a more equitable, merit-based society by empowering individuals through transformational education, and to bridge the socio-economic divide. Over the last 30 years the Foundation has directly touched the lives of over 39,000 alumni and students through its marquee institutions in literacy, K12 and higher education. Today, the Foundation has a community of over 100,000 constituents, which includes not only globally dispersed alumni and students but also faculty members, corporate executives, and extended families.

The Foundation has invested over US$1.5 billion in its seven landmark institutions and initiatives across education and art. Currently, over 16,000 students and over 2,700 faculty and staff are part of the Foundation along with more than 26,000 strong globally dispersed alumni community.

The Foundation’s students have gone to study at some of the best institutions globally including the Ivy League in the US and top universities in other countries including Australia, Singapore, China and UK. Students are also working in major corporations, including Goldman Sachs, Honda, HP, Schindler, and several others both in India and across other geographies. Faculty across the Foundation institutions are drawn from the best Indian and international universities, with a strong focus on research and innovation.

The Shiv Nadar Foundation pursues the philosophy of 'Creative Philanthropy'. It is a powerful model which envisages creation of institutions that are built to last and continue to impact future generations. It is an approach that allows sustained institutionalized philanthropy for long-term, high-impact, socio-economic transformation.