Airbags

[ms804]

Our department along with a fire equipment company put on a extrication class a couple weeks ago and we deployed an airbag to give the guys a sense of how fast and powerful they really are. you can see it deploy here

[Rescue Eighteen]

Thanks for the visual ms804. Now imagine if something was in front of that when it deployed. Really shows how you always want to follow the 5-10-20 rule when working near cars with undeployed airbags. (Stay 5 inches away from side airbags, 10 inches away from drivers airbag and 20 inches away from the passenger side airbag).

[ramseycl]

Have you ever gotten to compare an airbag from an older model car to the newer models? It really is good to see the difference in how they deploy. Older airbags deploy further out, away from the steering wheel, dash etc. the newer airbags have tethers inside that keep them from reaching out so far, causing them to expand up more.

[ms804]

we unfortunatly avent had that oportunity. But we did learn that auto makers are starting to put airbags that deploy from the sides of the seats that pretty much wrap around the person. This is good for the person in the vehicle but also another thing that rescue workers have to worry about.

[NB87JW]

MS804,
Thanks for the Mpeg file. You don't see to many of them like this. It would have been interesting to lean a "Rescue Randy" up against that airbag to see the force even more.

Was it easy to remove and set up the prop? this is a fantastic training idea ms804.

[MetalMedic]

Perhaps this was already discussed, but I have been away from the boards lately, so I will bring it up anyway. I was at a training session on hybrid vehicles earlier this week and learned an interesting fact about some of the new Honda vehicles. They now have a two-stage airbag system in their cars. What this involves is two deployment charges. For a low speed collision, only one deploys where both will deply during a high impact collision.

So, what this means is that if you arrive on the scene of a low speed collision where the air bag has been deplyed, you cannot "assume" that it is "safe". There could still be a deployment charge in the unit that would present a hazard to you.

So, no matter what, you need to ALWAYS treat an airbag as a safety hazard while performing a rescue.

[rmoore]

A question for ms804...

hey Capt Stu:

Why did you remove the column and then deploy the airbag?

[ms804]

we didnt remove the column...we had it donated from a local scrapyard.

The vehicles that we used to train on, the airbags were allready deployed or didn't have one equiped

[lutan1]

We've had similar sessions but have had the opportunity to deploy drivers, passenger and side bags- well worth the chance to see the size difference.

We too preach the 5-10-20 rule, but to actually see them deploy really hits it home....

Well done for making this video accessible to everyone!