Danger of electricution. Fact or Urban Myth

[Bobsprius]

Originally Posted by David Beale

I have only one comment re the above postings. Bobsprius, it's a 207 volt battery, not a 307.

A few points:

1. If the power is off (turned off by the driver etc - press the "power" button for 3 sec and it will go off) there is -no connection- to the HV battery. The connection is broken -inside- the steel battery case. Both leads to the battery are disconnected.

2. As posted above, there is ground fault protection on -both- battery leads. If either is connected to the chassis both are immediately disconnected.

3. Yes, if you tried hard enough you probably -could- get across the HV battery, but your chances of being electrocuted by a duplex outlet in your house are at least 1000 times greater. Why?
a ) In the house you can actually touch a plug prong as you pull it out or put it in. You can't with a Prius (there are no plugs you can access and the connectors that -are- used are much higher quality than household plugs in that you can't get a finger or most tools to touch the conductors).
b ) If you somehow did manage to connect to either side of the HV battery cable there is a very great chance you would be connecting it to the chassis, which would immediately trip the ground fault breaker.

David,
Thanks for the correction I appreciate it...

[snead_c]

Originally Posted by Greysquirrel34

Was looking for information on the Prius and came across this forum. Most of my questions I found answers to and a lot of answers to questions I never thought of. Anyhow, my wife drives a 97 Rav 4 with 168k on it and has had no problems with it, has the original clutch which says something for Toyota quality. We are looking around for a new auto in spring or before if something happens to the Rav, as she has had such service from her current car she won't even think about another make. The only question we have is that some of the local fire and rescue people around here had someone talk to them about the safety of hybrid cars as to the fact that in an accident they should wait for a qualified tech to come a disconnect the battery because there is danger of them or the occupants of the car could be electrocuted. Is this fact or just another myth trying to put a nail in Prius coffin?
By the way, a very informative forum.

Hi Greysquirre34. I live very near you and would be glad to discuss and share my Prius with you . We love ours!
Charlie Snead
134 Larchmont Drive.

[hill]

Welcome greysquirre,
Your question is like many old myths about the Prius. Besides the electrocuting battery ... you'll eventually hear about the "sudburry" nickel mine that has polluted the entire landscape. The myth goes on to say it's the fault of the Prius. There's also this crackpot "Art Spinella ... who has 'secret' proof that the Hummer is actually more economical than a Prius. Often it's the detractors of the Prius that continue to promulgate the stories. There's even one poor gear head slob (on youtube) that take a Prius out to the desert to blow it apart with a machine gun.

.

[Greysquirrel34]

I guess I came to the right place for answers, I thank you all for your replies.
I couldn't for the life of me think that there would not be some type of fail safe such as has been described in your replies. If there was a problem then I am sure it would be all over the news media.
I got my info from a friend that has a used, oops, preowned Mercedes lot and is always trying to sell me a MB for my wife, and I tell him to put a Toyota badge on one and she might buy it. When I told him she was thinking about a new Prius he had all kinds of reasons not to buy one including that you loose a lot of money on new cars as soon as you drive them off the lot. Yea, if you go to sell it in a few months you will but we keep our cars for a least 10 years or longer so it's a moot point.
The cargo room it the Prius is large than the 97 Rav which just folds the back seats against the front seats so there is not a lot of room for cargo so that shoots down another reason not to buy one.

[Greysquirrel34]

Originally Posted by snead_c

Hi Greysquirre34. I live very near you and would be glad to discuss and share my Prius with you . We love ours!
Charlie Snead
134 Larchmont Drive.

Thanks for the offer Charlie, when we get closer to a purchase date we may give you a call, problably not till spring.

[Flying White Dutchman]

i think there is a risk.

when you car is really crushed badly ( in that case i dont think there is any life left in the poeple inside the car ) the metal of the cars can aline with the + and - terminals on the HV battery cells and short them..( even with the main fuse blow there is stilll ~7,2 volt on the cells ) when you have a metal piece that pushes agains the + and - of all the cells.

but then again it will blow the battery or lose its energy because of this shortcut and in time there will be no voltage available to kill anyone.
beside maybe the people that are inside the car and touching metal parts because ty are crushed agains those parts.

but with the more then 1.000.000 toyota hybrids on the market ( not counting the others ) there have not been any reports yet so i geuss its save to say there is not real risk.

maybe with PHEV and BEV there is a bigger risk......

[JimboPalmer]

Toyota still has no Gen III document, but this is out.
New Vehicle Extrication: 2010 Toyota Prius - Fire Engineering

[jdcollins5]

Toyota has a 2010 Emergency Response Guide on the TIS web site
at techinfo.toyota.com.

[JimboPalmer]

Originally Posted by jdcollins5

Toyota has a 2010 Emergency Response Guide on the TIS web site
at techinfo.toyota.com.

Thanks for the update/correction, when I last looked it was not there.

https://techinfo.toyota.com/techInfo...s/3rdprius.pdf

[kenmce]

Greysquirrel34,

I consider the electroshock a very handy feature. When I want to catch fish, but am too lazy to go screw around on the water, I just -e-a-s-e- the car backwards down any boat launching ramp until the terminals are barely submerged. You can tell when you're deep enough because the water will start to boil and make sharp snapping and popping noises, and fish will jump clean out of the water.

When this happens you put it in forwards and go back up the ramp, park the car and then go around with a landing net and scoop up all the fish you can eat. It's not sporting, but it works great!










(What's that you say? The Mods are not amused? OK, just funnin' here, it doesn't really work that way, and if you overdo it the car starts to float off into the lake, and just so you should know, the bank will *still* want all their payments in full and on time, the b*st*rds)