Why do people drive in flooded areas?

[Mokel]

There are a couple of low lying areas a few miles where I live. They get flooded first. Every time these get flooded, there’s always an idiot drives through the flood. Car conks out.

They should know that insurance will not pay out for their stupidity.

Though if parked in a car park all day and the CP floods during that time, that’s different,

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

The water in the nearest flooded area can get deep enough for the bottom half of the windows to be submerged. Most of the vehicles are local.