Hybrid Vehicles Pose New Breed of Rescue Risks
Shana Gruskin, Sun Sentinel
Reprinted from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel


With gas prices rising and environmental concerns brewing, more Florida drivers are turning to electric-gas hybrids to meet their transportation needs.

But those green vehicles, while good for the air and their owners' wallets, pose a new danger to police, firefighters and others who respond to car crashes: electrocution.

Risks to first responders are nothing new, said Lawrence Scovotto, executive director of the Florida Fire Chiefs' Association. Fireworks, vicious dogs and even undeployed airbags can pose unexpected dangers to someone approaching a vehicle.

"We've had firefighters thrown almost 30 feet backward" by an airbag, Scovotto said.

Hybrids make a rescuer's job that much more complicated.

The battery in some hybrids, which run on a combination of electricity and gas, carries a charge of up to 500 volts. A typical car battery is 12 volts. As new hybrids are introduced, first responders must learn where the battery is stored and how to cut the cables so they don't risk electrocution when using such metal-crushing machinery as the Jaws of Life.

"With the increased popularity of hybrid vehicles, first responders are obviously dealing with some new challenges when they get to the scene of a crash," said Rae Tyson, spokesman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

To date, Floridians have registered nearly 7,300 hybrids made by Toyota and Honda, 27 percent of them in South Florida, according to data from the Department of Motor Vehicles. That doesn't include out-of-state hybrid vehicles traveling here.

So far, Tyson said, there have been no reports nationally of emergency workers being injured while trying to extricate a victim from a crashed hybrid. But that doesn't mean they should let their guard down, he added.

"It certainly wouldn't hurt for EMTs to be prepared because as more and more of these vehicles are on the road, it certainly increases the likelihood that sooner or later they'll have to respond to a crash."

Capt. Don DeLucia with Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue said the county's staff has received training on hybrids for more than three years. But the issue came to a head about a year ago, when car owners began calling with concerns.

"The question we were getting from people who owned these cars was, `We heard a rumor if our cars were involved in an accident and we're trapped, you guys are going to be hesitating to cut us out,'" DeLucia said.

"That is not true."

Everything on hybrid cars is color-coded to let first responders know where electricity flows, he said.

On Honda vehicles, for example, the high-voltage power line is bright orange and situated in such a way that "it's highly, highly unlikely that any emergency personnel would even be under that part of the car while trying to extricate somebody," said Sage Marie, a spokesman for the company. "Risk is very minimal, if any."

According to manufacturers, hybrids also pose no additional risk if submerged in water, a common occurrence in canal-laden South Florida. Emergency workers just need to make sure that once the car is pulled out, the ignition is off.

To ensure safety, Honda and Toyota created specific guides for first responders.

Toyota sent its guide to every fire department in the nation when its first hybrid was introduced a few years ago, said Sam Butto, a company spokesman. New guides are available for the company's latest hybrid Lexus and Highlander models. All the guides can be found free online.

So far, the challenge of removing victims from crashed hybrids hasn't come up in Palm Beach County, DeLucia said. But if it does, he said, "it's not going to prevent us from doing anything we would ordinarily do."

The eventuality of an incident, however, has forced trainers to stay on top of the issue.

"I imagine as different manufacturers introduce their vehicles, we're going to delve into those through the manufacturers to find out if they're going to do anything different," he said.

Capt. Dave Erdman, spokesman for Broward County Fire-Rescue, concurred.

"We want to make sure whatever we do doesn't endanger the trapped victim or the firefighter," he said.

In that vein, State Farm hosted live broadcasts across the nation June 17 to educate first responders on the potential risks of hybrid cars. The insurance company showed the educational seminar at three locations in South Florida: Palm Beach Gardens, Coral Springs and Pembroke Pines.

"Our hope is to make emergency responders aware of some of the hazards that technology in modern automobiles presents to them so ... when they need to extricate somebody after a collision, they'll be better informed," said Tom Hagerty, spokesman for State Farm.

While many responders across the state already have received training on the electrocution issue, they're now gearing up for the next test: hydrogen-powered vehicles.

The state Fire Marshal's Office currently is designing training standards for fighting fires related to hydrogen, which is highly flammable, odorless, colorless and can burn invisibly, said Nina Banister, a spokeswoman for the office. Three hydrogen-fueling stations are expected in the state within the next year.

Meanwhile, a statewide training program for first responders is expected to begin in January 2006, Scovotto added.

With so much new technology on the horizon, he said, EMTs, firefighters and other first responders must remember lesson No. 1: Expect anything.

"You never know what's going to happen when you show up to a car," he said.

Staff researcher Barbara Hijek contributed to this report.