Vehicle manufacturers are putting a lot of stress on making vehicles safer. Most vehicles now come equipped with airbags in any impact space. Side curtain is standard in most sedans. This is great for the occupants in the vehicle, but history shows what airbags can do to a rescuer. With these new airbag systems what should areas of concern be when working around these vehicles? It seems to me one of these side curtain airbags is just a guillotine waiting to happen.
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side air bags
The other problem is that vehicle models change so often and in Australia we get grey market imports which are often configured differently to the locally supplied vehicles. You just have to assume their is a bag fitted there unless proven otherwise. Makes it hard to remove the roof as the cutting points are where you expect a side air bag.Disclaimer
These views are my own and not of either my brigade or any other organisation. -
Today we are facing many dangers that we have never dealt with, most later models are standard equipped with at least six airbags and some as high as twelve. Plus compressed gas inflators in the post, roof rails, pyrotechnic seat belt pre-tensioners , compressed gas struts on the hoods, trunks, hatchbacks, SUV rear windows, and many more. Dangerous ? Yes, but with just a few simple rules and scene discipline, we can Safely work around all of these.
1. Study the new systems, know what you are looking at when you see it.
2. Before anything else, stabilize the vehicle, and disconnect the battery, these two steps are extremely important, by stabilizing the vehicle first you have stopped any chance of a Hybrid car in sleep mode from running over some one, or a regular car from any movement, and by disconnecting the battery, you have shut down a Hybrid car, and on either you have started the process of shutting down the airbag systems. Every car has a bleed down time, some 30 sec. some 10 min. by disconnecting the battery first, by the time you get your tools set up and make your plan at action this bleed down is usually over. A good safe bleed down time is generally considered to be 5 min.
3. Scan the vehicle for airbags, learn where the different airbags are mounted, when you walk up to any car look at all of these locations, noting how many airbags you have and how many are not deployed. Very important to remember to always use the same scanning pattern, never skip around or you will miss some. Learn a pattern and stay with it on every vehicle.
4. Stay out of inflation zones, learn the distances for each type airbag and stay out of that zone, never get between an airbag and your victim or lay a tool near an airbag. Remember that a frontal airbag, driver and pass. Can deploy a second time, but not a door, seat, or curtain airbag.
5. Always remove the trim and look before you cut or spread anything.
If we discipline our selves to stick to these few things we can pretty will work safely around these systems.
Are we completely out of danger ? No but we have eliminated 90% of it.
The other 10 % is up to us to study. And that 10% is the ones that will get us if we don’t.
I have a sign over my office door that fits well here.
It is not our job to fight fire or treat the sick and injured. It is our job to be prepared to do so if the need arises. Training It Is A Must!Comment
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In direct answer to your question, curtain airbag inflaters can be in the A post, middle ways of the roof rail on each side, in the C or D post, Nissan has one that is over the rear glass on each side, some have one in the middle over the rear glass.Originally posted by muddled247
As I said in the previous post, Always remove the trim before you cut or spread anything.Comment
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hey thanks for the info its very apperciated!Comment
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