Breaking in is hard to do
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By SAM COOPER
Standard-Examiner staff
N. Utah rescue crews adapt to safer, stronger vehicles
HARRISVILLE -- Weber Fire District Capt. Doug Allen has seen numerous accidents, but his memory lingers on one last year on State Road 39 near South Fork that trapped a 10-year-old boy.
"It was the worst extrication I've ever done," he said.
The boy and his father were on their way to a Boy Scout function when their car went halfway down the side of a steep, icy embankment and hit a cottonwood tree, pushing the engine into the passenger seat of the vehicle and pinning the boy, who had a severely broken leg, Allen said.
A medical helicopter was on its way, but a heavy rescue squad with equipment to cut into vehicles was delayed in Ogden Canyon when a diesel truck rolled over in front of it, he said.
With the car precariously lodged against a tree and the frigid Ogden River rushing below, Allen and Ogden Fire Department paramedic Jim Dotson did what they could to save the boy as precious minutes ticked by.
Each year, rescue workers across the nation extricate hundreds of automobile accident victims from mangled wrecks.
But with newer-model vehicles being equipped with up to a dozen air bags and reinforced steel construction, rescue workers are scrambling to update tools and victim-extrication methods to keep saving lives.
"It's not more difficult to get them out, just more time-consuming and dangerous," said Chris Whetton, an engineer and heavy rescue technician for Weber Fire District.
New dangers are scattered throughout the vehicles.
Pressurized gas canisters that inflate air bags can explode if pierced by cutting tools, and rescuers can be blown from cars when the air bags suddenly deploy.
Hidden battery cables in hybrid cars can deliver a powerful shock. Seatbelt pretensioners, which quickly tighten the belts in an accident, also can explode when cut.
"Each year, they're (auto manufacturers) coming up with something different, something new to us," Whetton said. "We just need to train on it."
When arriving at an accident that requires extrication, rescue workers have a method of operation meant to mitigate risk.
First, they detach the vehicle's battery, lessening the likelihood that air bags will deploy, Whetton said.
Then they remove any windows around the area of the car they plan to open, and check the vehicle's trim to determine the locations of canisters feeding the air bags.
Power circulating through the car's electrical system can still cause an air bag to deploy up to 10 minutes after the battery has been disconnected if rescue workers cut into them, Whetton said.
To cut through the strengthened steel, such leading hydraulic-tool makers as Hurst Jaws of Life -- whose namesake, George Hurst, introduced the first hydraulic extrication tools for auto racing in the early 1970s -- keep putting more power into their equipment, making the tools heavier and more expensive.
Because of tougher cars and accidents like the one Allen and Dotson described, Weber Fire District recently purchased one of these upgraded Jaws of Life.
The old Jaws of Life could apply about 25,000 pounds of force, while the new ones can deliver closer to 100,000, Dotson said. The new tool cost the department $20,160.
"Our older tools were having a hard time, so we've had to call in other companies with heavier tools -- and that's just time-consuming," Whetton said.
Back on the icy slope, Allen and Dotson, concerned the wrecked vehicle could slide into the river with the boy inside, attached the car to the winch cable on their fire engine and roped themselves in while another paramedic gave the boy basic medical attention.
Because the car was above them on the embankment, Allen lay on the ground while Dotson stood on his back, cutting open the vehicle with the Jaws of Life. The boy was freed just as the medical helicopter arrived, Allen said.
Though the outcome was favorable, the case illustrates how important it can be to quickly free trapped victims of auto accidents.
Paramedics are taught that, in cases of severe trauma, if they can get victims to the hospital in the first hour -- known as the "golden hour" -- chances of survival drastically improve.
Later this year, the nonprofit group COMCARE Emergency Response Alliance, with the cooperation of auto manufacturers, is introducing a single Web site that will offer schematics and safety specs for most vehicles on the road.
Rescue workers will be able to use a laptop computer on the way to an accident to find out about the construction of the vehicle, placement of air bag canisters and other details.
The Web site could shave minutes from on-scene time, rescue workers say.
Automakers say they're doing more to make safety information available to rescuers and toolmakers before new models come out.
For instance, Ford is already offering a look at the skeleton of the 2009 F-150 pickup. It's built with the strongest steel construction the company has ever used, potentially adding to the difficulties rescue workers face.
But with about three people hurt in car crashes every minute in the U.S., National Highway Transportation spokesman Rae Tyson said he is comfortable with the trade-off.
Just like everybody else, rescuers will have to work harder to keep up with technology, he said.
"The fatality rate for passenger vehicles is the lowest in history. That, to me, is a pretty good news story."
Information from The Associated Press was used in this article.
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