Emergency Exit ?

Thanks all for your replies.

Have now placed screwdrivers in glove box and pocket at back of passenger seat so can be accessed by rear passenger if needed. (Decided against putting them in the door pocket in case they fall during an accident and poke someone's eye out or something). Thanks unholy angel, I might have bought hammers otherwise.

As regards the neighbour in his van not tooting the horn, it's possible that he did, but bear in mind this occurred early afternoon and most people were at work, unless working shifts like my husband. Sadly in many residential areas people generally ignore, or tune out, tooting car alarms going off so no guarantee of anyone responding.

I am not sure of the age of his van (he has a personal/company name number plate) but as he always keeps the van spotless it looks like new, although he has had it some years. Not sure whether he could have got out via rear doors or not and am not going to ask him. I reckon he wants to forget about it happening. Possibly he was not thinking straight due to overheating in extremely hot weather and working in van may have started to get lightheaded or something, he also often gets call-outs in night/early hours so maybe lacking sleep too. The incident was followed by my viewing a programme a few days later about driverless electric cars and I started to wonder about safety issues at that point.

Regarding my accident on the ice the car ended up diagonally across the road on a bend that hid it from view of oncoming traffic with the nose pointing into the hedgerow bank. I used the sunroof to escape as I had tried the passenger door but being an older car the door was too heavy to push wide enough so it did not slam shut again so I could not get out that way. I knew I had to get out quickly as oncoming traffic would not see the vehicle in time to stop or avoid the long sheet of ice on the corner. I was lucky in being able to stop the bus which appeared only a few minutes later. Behind the bus was a car carrying two chaps who very kindly helped me by rocking and tipping my car back on to the tarmac and helping me push it to the side of the road. It was a write-off and I was too nervous to drive again for a while, ok now though, that incident was more than a decade ago.

Thanks for helping, I shall be passing the screwdriver tip on to my family and friends, cheers!