Posted on 04/21/2008 2:40:32 AM PDT by kingattax
Rescue worker Adam Maziuk recalls racing to an accident scene where a victim was trapped inside a Mercedes.
Thanks to the high-end luxury car’s ultra-modern shatterproof windshield and super-strong frame, made of an exotic metal or reinforced steel, the motorist was conscious and without significant injury, said Maziuk.
The problem then became how to get the trapped driver out.
The rescue team’s cutters couldn’t shear through the frame and the windshield was unbreakable, keeping emergency rescue workers out and the motorist in.
“It took forever. If he was unconscious, or if there was a fire, there would have been a problem,” said Maziuk, deputy chief of Upper Bucks County EMS, who was with a different outfit at the time of the accident.
While better vehicle safety systems like that in the Mercedes are helping to save more lives than ever before, they’re also making it more difficult for rescue workers to remove victims from the wreckage.
As crews are potentially forced to work longer to get victims out, precious seconds tick away, dwindling down the so-called “golden hour,” the crucial time for getting injured patients to emergency rooms.
“It could possibly be the difference between someone making it or not,” said Tom Rimmer, deputy chief of the Ottsville Volunteer Fire Co.
It’s not just stronger post, roofs, doors and windshields in newer model cars that complicate extrication. Adding to the difficulty are undeployed airbags, airbag gas generators, belt pretensioners, hidden batteries and electrical cables in hybrid cars that can deliver a wicked shock.
Unfired air bags, for example, can prove a fatal danger to rescue workers and victims if they release during a rescue.
“The problem is they’re released by pressurized gas canisters and if you hit one, it’s like a gunshot going off. You could injure or even kill one of your guys or the patient,” said Brian DuBree, chief of the Plumsteadville Volunteer Fire Co.
Some new vehicles contain ultra-strength steel that can withstand up to 10,000 pounds per square inch of pressure, making cutting with hydraulic cutters challenging, said Rimmer.
While buying expensive, more powerful cutters is one option, Rimmer said it’s also possible to get at crash victims efficiently through strategic frame cutting, which can be learned through training and with the help of the vehicle information.
Local fire and rescue departments reached for this story did not report any fatalities because of an exploding air bag or because a crash victim could not be extricated in time.
But they know that the technology in newer cars is a challenge they’ll have to master from here on out to continue saving lives.
To do so, the local crews are investing in training, education and new technology.
“It’s all about education and learning how to do the procedure properly on each vehicle,” said Doug Wilhelm, chief of the Quakertown Fire Department.
In addition to taking extrication training courses, Rimmer’s Ottsville company and Riegelsville Community Fire Co. each recently purchased a database that contains information on the location and deactivation procedure of safety features like airbags.
The information is loaded onto a laptop computer the companies bring to an accident scene. Officials access it on the spot, pulling up a schematic of the vehicle that acts as a map for where to cut.
“We’ve used it in two extrication efforts so far,” said Riegelsville Chief Todd Myers.
A few weeks ago, Plumsteadville got a sample of the software and plans to purchase it, DuBree said.
Last year, Riegelsville used a $50,000 grant to upgrade its extrication tools, which included buying a cutter with a slicing force of 320,000 pounds, Myers said.
Richland Township Fire & Rescue has applied for a federal grant to pay for the installation of computers and vehicle-information software right into their trucks, said Chief Ron March.
COMCARE Emergency Response Alliance, a nonprofit group, plans to introduce a Web site later this year that will offer vehicle schematics and safety information for many car types. Rescue crews will be able to check out the site.
“As long as you know what you’re dealing with, what you can and can’t do, it’s going to be all right,” said Bill Cope, president of the Doylestown Fire Co.
With three people injured every minute in car crashes in the United States, Rae Tyson, a spokesman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said it’s important to keep in mind that more people are surviving crashes than ever before.
“The good news is someone has survived in the first place to be extricated,” Tyson said.
10ksi yield strength is crap. 36ksi is low grade commercial quality steel. 100ksi would be high strength steel. The rest of this article is nothing but speculation and conjecture.
This whole article is just stupidity stretched out to column length.
In a weaker car, the rescue workers could quickly extract the body the victim with a vacuum cleaner and a dustpan, and be back at the Squad in time for Seinfeld re-runs, but the newer cars force them to work twice as long to extract noisy and troublesome live people, which are a PITA.
Boo freekin’ hoo.
It’s hard to find intelligence in the Intelligencer.
It’s a small town New York Times wannabe.
Operating “The Jaws of Life” (cutting through pillar posts, popping doors, etc) is, to this day,one of the coolest things I have ever done.
Same here, in the ‘70s. Great tool, and it sure beat the chain come-a-longs, oversized can openers, and even the low pressure air chisel. Waaaay faster.
The whole thing sounds like a rant against safety technology, until somebody finally figures out the point:
“The good news is someone has survived in the first place to be extricated,”
Must be a really slow news day.
Wouldn’t working twice as long be a problem if the person is bleeding profusely or in shock?
Wouldn't the person who is bleeding profusely or in shock likely be dead or in much worse shape if the car was weaker? As long as we are engaging in pointless what-if scenarios, we might as well examine the primary problem of surviving the impact before we get down to the minor problem of speedy extraction.
I don't want to read more into this thing than is actually there, but this article reminds me of the people who complain that there are too many seriously injured soldiers coming back from Iraq because our field medicine has improved so much over the years.
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