Why do people drive in flooded areas?

I live in a frequently flooded area (road closed signs just stored at the side of the road, actual flood timetables for the buses). People are knobs and think they know better than the (very clear) depth markers and road closed signs and too impatient to do the diversion (which tbf is a pita for our nearest frequently closed road) when they think they know better. Mostly they just damage their car as there isn't much of a flow in the deepest part there, but a bus was really stupid the other week and the village kids got a lot of excitement being rescued.
The ford otoh which again is super clearly signposted is a frequent source of amusement locally, and the Watercam now enables everyone to admire the stupidity of those trying to go through water which is too deep, but mostly too fast and your wheels fall off one side as its a very narrow actual road part.

Yes I agree - it depends on the policy and the insurer. Poster upthread said insurance would be immediately invalidated though and this is nonsense.

It depends on what caused the flood damage.

If your car was parked outside your house as normal and your road floods, then yes, you'll be covered, but if you ignore road closed signs and drive through floodwater anyway, you probably won't be.

If a road is open, other cars are getting through and you happen to get stuck and your engine fails, it could go either way.

Maybe they need to get back to their house to stop it flooding and it’s the only way through or maybe their house has flooded and they’re trying to get to somewhere else to stay. There’s not always alternative routes when the roads start to flood.

Unless there's some kind of measuring device on the road side (there sometimes is under bridges), traffic has no way of knowing whether it's 6 inches deep or six feet, especially if no pavement to gauge it against. It's OK if you're local and know the roads, but people unaccustomed to the road in question really has no idea as to the depth of the water so has to guess. Sometimes there's no way of turning around either, so you either have to give it a try or just end up causing congestion for other traffic behind you who may have higher axles/chassis and know they can easily get through.

Depends on the policy.
You may be held partly liable but you don't 'immediately invalidate' insurance, that's just not accurate.

Not if you drive though an obviously flooded road. Or through the road closed barriers

And it’s people like you who think they know best that causes issues. We have muppets like this near me when the road floods, moving barriers and driving through

you immediately invalidate your insurance and leave yourself open to a ticket from the police for during through road closed signs. Your vehicle may have clearance but you have no idea what’s in that flood water that could cause damage/hit your car

Most comprehensive insurance will cover flood damage so don't know where you have that idea.

To get to the other side.

Floods very in depth, cars vary in their ability to cope with them. I had a regularly flooding road near me where I used to live, it saved me 10-15 mins journey time each way, i regularly drove past the road closed signs because I was high clearance. I now have a different car and wouldn't dream of trying on that road. The problem is i could have been caught out couldn't I!

I’ll never understand it. I live near a part of the River Roding that submerges the road in multiple places every winter. I don’t even attempt it. Not even in the bits I know are shallow. As soon as I reach a bit where it has breached the fields onto the road I turn around and go back the other way. Google Buttsbury Wash (river Wid, Essex). Practically every picture is of a submerged car at the same ford. Multiple times a day at certain times of the year car after car tries to drive through it. Madness.

I think this thread sums it up, people are either:

a) Uninformed about the depth of the water and ignorant of the wading depth of their car.

Eg, a New JLR Defender has a max wading depth of 90cm. Then it floats and it's a 2 tonne+ commercial vehicle so what chance does your Fiat 500 stand?

b) They are dickheads who think they know better...can't be bothered to go round or actively want to go through flood water because it's fun.

I grew up in an area that floods regularly. I knew a lot of the b) types and they were generally your basic arsehole, who also has blinding headlights and is a bit thick.

I assume you've never done anything silly or never made a mistake?

It happens. I don't think most people are fucking their cars up on purpose

They can’t be bothered/don’t have time/don’t know how to divert around it and take the chance.

Where I live floods regularly. The road gets closed and people still move the road closed signs and barriers so that they can drown their Vauxhall Astra that they have oddly decided is capable of going through the water that is deep enough to close a road.

That would be a reason not to do it, yeah?

It's also not easy to turn around in queues of traffic that are all out of their lanes because of the flood. People also don't get taught to drive in floods. Lots of reasons!

I think it's easy to misjudge - where I live the drains get blocked sometimes and it flood onto the road but very shallow and you can drive through it, slowly of course. I could potentially misjudge it if the flood were ever worse.

It does annoy me when people drive through too fast or even through puddles fast when I'm a pedestrian. If you can see the road surface is wet, slow down.

They think it's worth chancing it rather than having to do a detour.

It must be nice never to make a mistake or misjudge a situation.

Its hard to judge the water depth.

Plus people are busy and need to get where they are going. Otherwise they would not be in the car in the first place.

It's not always obvious how deep the water is until it's too late.

It's obvious surely 👀

They have way to much money 💰 and can easily afford to buy a new car every time it rains 🤔

Oh how the other half live 😞

The people who drove through a flooded road near us in one of last year’s storms sending bow waves into already flood properties did it because they are selfish pricks 🤬. They ignored the road closed signs , the flood wardens and the police !! 🤬