Immense amounts of money, research, effort, time, and science have gone into making cars safer. Your economy car is so safe now that you'll survive an accident with a larger vehicle. But it's also so safe now that the traditional blades, jaws, and saws that fire departments would use to extricate you are no longer strong enough to get through the car's metal. There are also myriad other features lurking in a car's bodywork that can do more damage than the accident. Rescuers need to make sure they don't cut the pressurized gas canisters that would inflate an airbag, or the battery cables in a hybrid. Once in the car, they need to make sure they don't do something that will make the airbag suddenly go off if it hasn't already. It has meant that rescuers first need to peel back the car's shell to see what's beneath before they begin digging out the passengers.
All this has added time to the rescue effort, which might mean the difference between staying here or checking out the hereafter. It's also ballooned budgets, as crews need to buy the equipment they need to get the job done. Maybe carmakers should start making the tools necessary to break their cars open in an accident. The Jaguar Jaws of Life, anyone? Thanks for the tip, JaysonAych!
[Source: AP]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Snutz @ Mar 23rd 2008 4:43PM
Ummm someone needs to read their own website more often. Same article was mentioned on here two days ago.
http://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/21/flipside-is-crash-safety-endangering-survivors/
Frick @ Mar 23rd 2008 4:51PM
+1
Chaz @ Mar 23rd 2008 5:05PM
I was wondering where I saw it before..
pscs @ Mar 23rd 2008 5:27PM
same... I thought it was a deja-vu or I read it off another site.
Bert @ Mar 23rd 2008 5:36PM
Werd!
psarhjinian @ Mar 23rd 2008 4:53PM
Ok, so the choice is between possibly dying if ER crews cannot cut me out quickly enough, versus certain death in some old clunker that at least they'll be able to scrape my remains out of easily.
I'll take the first option, thanks.
This is about as newsworthy as the old adages about people drowning because of seatbelts, therefore seatbelts were unsafe.
info @ Mar 23rd 2008 5:27PM
indeed. The whole article is a bunch of BS.
Kaptain75329 @ Mar 23rd 2008 11:23PM
+1
Especially since it's not unreasonable to assume rescue crews will adapt over time.
Yar @ Mar 23rd 2008 4:59PM
I thought airbags used a small explosive charge to generate the gas required to inflate an airbag, since keeping a compressed tank of gas on board the vehicle would be hazardous and unreliable. Plus, if the accident is severe enough to require the Jaws of Life for extraction, wouldn't we have to assume that the airbags would have already deployed?
Chaz @ Mar 23rd 2008 5:07PM
+1
andre lavoie @ Mar 23rd 2008 5:38PM
actually, its not safe to assume that the airbags have gone off no matter how severe the accident. undeployed airbags are a major safety concern for rescue crews.
sw @ Mar 23rd 2008 5:47PM
Not always, under certain circumstances where it's better for an airbag not to go off, it doesn't. Or there could be a malfunction.
Galley @ Mar 23rd 2008 5:00PM
If we had sophisticated enough traffic management systems, we could all drive vehicles made of cardboard. There would be no "accidents".
Yar @ Mar 23rd 2008 5:12PM
Ah yes, the DOT can simply regulate us into driving nirvana! No amount of "sophistication" will stop all accidents, as long as people are driving. Even if cars were set on computer-guided rails (which will never happen) there would still be accidents due to mechanical failure and other unforeseeable mishaps.
info @ Mar 23rd 2008 5:26PM
"No amount of "sophistication" will stop all accidents, as long as people are driving"....
especially if epople have gone through the US way of "driver education."
Chaz @ Mar 23rd 2008 5:10PM
As far as the hybrid thing..
I always thought extraction using the jaws of life involved severing the A or B pillar and/or seperating the door. Why would there be high voltage wiring in those parts of the car?
Hike15 @ Mar 23rd 2008 5:15PM
how bout a mercedes jaws of life?
Chaz @ Mar 23rd 2008 5:37PM
I'd sooner Jaguar reliability than Mercedes reliability in such a crucial device.
Imagine that 20 years ago :o
Robb @ Mar 23rd 2008 5:49PM
The first sentence is very true. My Ford Focus recently saved my life in an impact with a semi.
john @ Mar 23rd 2008 6:40PM
If they're that safe... why can't you just open the door?