Have you ever driven through a gate or fence to escape something?

Sixty years ago, cut through a pasture . . . with a bull at the far end of the pasture.

YIKES ! I’m here to talk about . . .

No, but I can tell you the gates where I live are built to easily fall off. They are just simple single arms that lift up, you probably are asking about substantial metal gates.

It should be effective, to drive through most gates. The movies often depict such things, as not damaging the vehicle.
That’s the Hollywood part.

It probably works better, with big heavy muscle cars.

I’ve never done it nor seen anyone do it IRL. But I believe it could be done, at least at the gate. A car is very heavy and has a lot of power behind it if it is going even 30 mph. Most metal on gates would not hold up to that hitting it. Especially when you think that all you really have to break is the one point…the hasp or lock of the gate. Once that is broken the hinges will allow the gate to open enough for the car to get through. But as @JLeslie said, it would damage the car too.

I’ve always wondered about the scenes where someone drives through a chain link fence, though. The design of the fence at that point is different than a gate. It is more flexible and spread out. Not hard and brittle. If a car hit it, I would think the flex of the fence would absorb some of the energy of the car. And the energy of the car is not hitting the panel of fence with the same energy. At the point of impact, lots of energy. Even 4 inches away and it is a lot less. And even if you tore the panel completely away from the fence, it is highly flexible and it seems like it would wrap around all sorts of things on the car. This would result in it being dragged, I would think.

@seawulf575 My big “vehicle” accident was hitting a chain link in a golf cart. I wasn’t driving, I was just hurt badly in the accident. I think we were going about 25–30 when we hit. There is solid bar across the top and solid vertical bars every (I don’t know exactly) six or eight feet maybe? Maybe some chain link fences don’t have the top horizontal bar across the while thing. I hit that bar when I was thrown. Not good. Obviously, most cars have more weight and the dynamic is different, but just thinking out loud.

If the front of the car is below the bar if might get through the chain link, but then the windshield might hit at the bar. The height of the car and the fence might matter a lot on how well or terrible that incident will go.

@JLeslie Another one we see on the movies is the car hitting the fire hydrant and it breaking off and spraying water everywhere. This does not happen in real life. My step-daughter spun out on a slushy road one night doing about 35 mph. She took out a small sapling and then hit the fire hydrant. No damage to the hydrant, car totaled. She it it broadside and the entire side was caved in.

^Yeah. American fire hydrants, are one of the most indestructible things that one could hit.
Telephone poles don’t come down like in movies either.

Both are intentionally made, to take a hit.

I would think most gates are not designed with stopping vehicles in mind.