What Happens if in rear ended accident?

You'd have to get hit REALLY hard to cause enough damage to the car to worry about fluids and battery acid. Like totaled car - hit by a Semi at 60mph hard. The battery is in the rear protected by a few FEET of trunk, and the body of the car.

Also, the HV system has an automatic disconnect in the case of serious accident. There are a few failsafes to ensure that you could never get shocked by the car.

You could possibly come up with a couple of really wacky situations that might hurt you (Driving into a lake or something like that), but it's VERY unlikely.

Also remember, a regular car battery has enough power in it to kill you too.

 

Actually, I think you are protected with safeguards even if you drive into a lake, and the manual is talking about the 12V battery, which is in the rear.

 

Has anyone ever been electrocuted by a 12V battery? LOL.

 

You have nothing to worry about. There are a few "hearsay" things that circulate about the Prius, including the electrocution bit. Some emergency responders have raised legitimate concerns about the car, and whether it presents an unusual hazard in the event of an accident.

As the manual repeatedly notes, all high-voltage wires and components in a Prius have a yellow covering. If you don't chew on those, you'll be OK. :lol:

 

Sorry to correct but I've been there, done that. Engunneer may not realize that there is another battery. Believe the engineers that wrote the manual!

I am on my second Prius. First one died protecting us from an evil F 350 truck that struck from behind on the freeway.

Mine was one of three at the body shop (coincidence discussed in one of the lost threads). Other two were minor but enough to crush the 12V battery behind the right rear tire. All three leaked electrolyte from there but I must point out that leak would never reach the occupants as the battery is contained, very small and a lot of metal between you and it.


<<My question is has anybody ever been in a serious accident with a prius and has anybody ever experienced any of these hazards?>>

I really got hit, in the rear at 50+/- that totaled the car and really happy with the design saving my family.
I am a Fire Chief, seen many crashes and believe this is one of the safest midsize cars on the road. Lot of hype out there but there are a few legit safety rating sites you can look up. I had saved this one,

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/NCAP/Cars/2971.html

Enjoy your car

 

Thanks for the question cei955. I confess the owner's manual with all its' warnings gave me some pause too. But I've never read an owners manual prior to the Prius - so I didn't know what to compare too. :blink:

 

The main safety-related item is to never touch an orange cable, whether in an accident or not. Teach your family that too. Of course without an accident, those cables are quite out of reach...

One of the main reasons for rear-end accidents is when you surprise someone by stopping too quickly. Thankfully, that cause has been reduced considerably since I started driving a Prius, as it is not fuel-efficient to tailgate. That's not to say someone won't still rear-end you at a light, but at least some of the threat has been reduced, at least for me.

 

It is true that the orange wires are the HV wires, and you shouldn't touch them. However, the car is designed to disconnect the HV battery should the airbags deploy or anything abnormal occur with the HV electrical, including a short to the car chassis. Normally the high voltage system is not connected to chassis ground in any way.

The warnings usually refer to the alkaline electrolyte in the HV battery, which isn't any more of a concern than a rechargable D cell. The electrolyte is really a paste, so it won't easily ooze.
The 12V battery contains sulfuric acid in liquid form, as in any other car battery. That would be potentially more harmful than the HV battery electrolyte.

 

What engunneer said is correct there is a lot of power in a 12 Volt car battery, enough to kill you several times over. But you would have to convert it to a higher Voltage first. I'm not a "safety expert" but the lowest Voltage I have ever heard of killing someone was in the neighborhood of 35 or 40 Volts and that was a really extreme circumstance. Most of the time you can barely feel 35 or 40 Volts. Most people who are electrocuted (in the USA anyway) are killed by good old 120 Volt 60 Hertz AC, just like whats at the wall outlet.

 

0.006 A is considered the threshold where current becomes potentially dangerous with 60hz AC. For most people, the danger zone would be higher than that. For DC, 0.06 is the threshhold.
At 12V DC, a resistance of less than 200 ohms would be needed. Dry skin is way over that, and even wet skin is unlikely to have resistance that low. If the voltage were low frequency AC, then someone taking a bath might have concern.

 

Well, that's it, then. I am going to have to tell the family: NO MORE BATHS in the Prius!

Seriously, THANKS DanMan for sharing your knowledge with us. Very reassuring.

 

And it tastes really sour! Almost like super concentrated lemons. Don't ask, it's better you don't know.

 

Since the High Voltage Traction battery is just behind the rear seat, any crash that was able to reach that far would probably have killed the back seat passangers and quite possibly the front seat ones as well.

As for the getting shocked leaving the vehicle...not likely. Even if a HV line was shorted directly to metal, the vehicle doesn't have a way to referance earth as a ground plane due to the rubber tires. That sounds like a referance to downed powerlines from a light pole.