"I Never Knew That": Domestic Cars Increasingly Using Laminated Glass on Side Windows Raises Safety Concerns

[Anchor]

Automobile windshields use "laminated glass," which does not shatter easily to protect drivers in the event of an accident. Recently, however, car manufacturers have also been applying this type of glass to side windows. The problem is that it makes emergency escape and rescue difficult.

Reporter Kim Taewon put this to the test.

[Reporter]

A police officer waves his hands frantically while calling for his colleagues.

A man in his 70s had driven his truck into a reservoir.

[Yoon Jin-won / Responding Police Officer at the Time: The car doors were locked, and the windows were rolled up, making it impossible to check on the driver's condition. As you know, vehicles have emergency hammers. I broke the passenger-side window and was able to carry out the rescue.]

The rescue succeeded thanks to the passenger-side window being made of tempered glass, which breaks easily.

Tempered glass shatters easily even when a 2-kilogram steel ball is dropped from a height of 5 meters, or when struck with an emergency escape hammer.

However, an increasing number of cars are now using "laminated glass," which has a film inserted between glass layers, for their side windows.

The reporting team directly acquired a vehicle to conduct an experiment.

Even after striking it repeatedly with a hammer, only minor cracks appear.

[When I hit it a few times, it cracked, but it does not feel like it shatters the way regular glass does. Pushing against it does not do anything either.]

It was only after smashing it with a headrest and kicking it dozens of times that the glass finally broke, taking more than three minutes.

In an emergency situation, that is enough time to make the difference between life and death.

An investigation by the Korea Consumer Agency of 47 vehicle models across 6 domestic brands revealed that 12 models used unbreakable laminated glass for both the front and rear rows.

While this has the advantage of making the cabin quieter, almost no one is aware that it makes escape or rescue significantly harder.

[Goo Bon-tak / Yangcheon-gu, Seoul: It came installed as a default feature. I had no idea it was like this, and I am learning about it for the first time today.]

There is a way to check in advance.

For vehicles with laminated glass on the sides,

looking closely at the edge of the glass reveals the word "Laminated" written in English.

Even if you roll down the window, unlike regular glass, the cross-section is concave.

On the other hand, easily breakable tempered glass is marked with "Tempered," and its cross-section is convex.

[Kim Sung-yu / Investigator, Consumer Safety Bureau, Korea Consumer Agency: Most rear windows use tempered glass, so they can be broken by striking them with an emergency escape hammer.]

The Korea Consumer Agency has recommended that automakers allow consumers to choose the type of glass when purchasing a vehicle.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
Reported by Kim Taewon | Video by Kim Hak-mo | Video Editing by Park Ji-in
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.