Rescue Workers say Hybrid Cars a Danger

[bookrats]

Nice article here regarding how fire and emergency workers are learning the ropes for hybrid vehicles.

Good quote from article:

Firefighters around the country, including in South Hampton Roads, have been boning up on the workings of Toyota’s Prius and Honda’s Civic and Insight hybrids. Moore said that although the potential for injury is there, rescuers who educate themselves about how to work around the technology shouldn’t have to worry.  

\"At this point, it’s totally overemphasized as a hazard,\" [Ron Moore, a battalion chief in the McKinney, Texas, Fire Department who also writes about vehicle extrication for Firehouse Magazine] said. \"There is a potential that we never had before, but the engineers on both Honda and Toyota cars have done such a tremendous job of engineering the safety concerns that if we’re better educated responders, it will be no big deal.\"  

[tappel]

I printed out the guide for rescue workers available on this site and gave it to our local fire/rescue chief. He claims that they have been aware for sometime of the issues surrounding rescue from such vehicles and was appreciative for the info.
He went on to say that they are continually updated on new offerings, the most important being all the new configurations of air bags.
Bottom line for his crew is that they will continue to learn and adapt as new technology comes along. Seemed like a reasonable response.
Tom

[jchu]

As things stand with 1st responders that I know, what they worry about has much less to do with the Electrical system than the side airbags. When cutting into the car thru the struts an undeployed airbag might be triggered causing further injury to the occupant and injury to the rescue worker. Rarely are they going thru the undercarriage.

Obviously, this will become more of an issue with all cars as the new NHTSA mandates for side airbags in all cars by 2006.