Danger of electricution. Fact or Urban Myth

[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.

[V8Cobrakid]

myth. you would have to crush the battery back which sits on top of the rear axle. in such an emergency, they have a GFI (ground fault interupting) braker on the battery pack that clips it out of service.

[JimboPalmer]

https://techinfo.toyota.com/techInfo...s/2ndprius.pdf
is the Emergency Response Guide, it is quite straight forward.

I bound one and gave it to my local firemen.

[Bobsprius]

Without getting into the exact science of the Pruis HV battery & the possibilities that could be detrimental to First Responders, Toyota DOES provide a booklet called "Prius Emergency Response Guide". It is available at any Toyota dealership, Part Number: 00400-ERG02-0U. This manual explains ALL of the systems that first responders can encounter, and how to deal with them. It may not be important to the responders what the "actual" voltage of the HV (high voltage) battery (307 VDC), but how to AVOID getting shocked or electrocuted if they cut into the wrong area.
Fortunatly, Toyota takes great pains to IDENTIFY all of the HV wires, they are all BRIGHT ORANGE. Toyota also provides a big removable plug/master disconnect at the driver side of the battery connection that will remove all of the HV battery voltage from said orange wires.
Pull this plug, the HV battery voltage is eliminated from the wiring harness.
THIS is the MOST IMPORTANT THING that a First Responder needs to know:
Pull the master disconnect.

High Voltage Wiring is harnessed in Orange conduit. It's can't be missed unless of course one is color blind. In the event of a rollover accident it is my understanding should some roof pillars need to be cut, there is no HV wiring in that area. There are also some built in safety features to disconnect power if operable.

A good question but I don't think the levity of the question is to a point of any different with a severe Rear Impact, and a gas tank eruption with hard enough impact....

I have not heard of any situations where anyone was electrocuted

[a64pilot]

The car I believe has been around since 97? To my knowledge that has never happened

[TonyPSchaefer]

hi GraySquirell and welcome to PriusChat!

I think they've all hit it on the head. There are mechanical disconnects triggered by damaging situations and airbag deployment. As a safety measure, Early Responders should pull the master disconnect.

In fact, though we've never heard of anyone being shocked by a damaged Prius, we have seen these safeties in place. For example, a Prius owner was in a font-end accident that triggered the airbags. The damage was relatively minimal - as they described it. But when they went to start the car to put it on the flat-bad, it wouldn't start. The disconnects needed to be replaced/reset by the dealer.

[hobbit]

I've got a little sub-page that links to several of the different
ERGs, as they're called. Look here, and point your local
officials at it too. All the hybrid makers are careful to have
this sort of info out there, free to the public.
.
_H*

[RodJo]

Originally Posted by JimboPalmer

https://techinfo.toyota.com/techInfo...s/2ndprius.pdf
is the Emergency Response Guide, it is quite straight forward.

Originally Posted by Bobsprius

... Toyota DOES provide a booklet called "Prius Emergency Response Guide". It is available at any Toyota dealership, Part Number: 00400-ERG02-0U.

Originally Posted by hobbit

I've got a little sub-page that links to several of the different
ERGs, as they're called. Look here, and point your local
officials at it too. All the hybrid makers are careful to have
this sort of info out there, free to the public.

It looks like all those links point to Gen 2 ERG's. I could see where a link for the Gen 3 document might be more helpful in a 2010 forum.

[JimboPalmer]

Originally Posted by RodJo

It looks like all those links point to Gen 2 ERG's. I could see where a link for the Gen 3 document might be more helpful in a 2010 forum.

Yes, if Toyota had released a 2010 document yet, I certainly would have linked to it instead.

[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.