The hidden side of vehicle safety

摘要

Now while most incidents involving management of a motor vehicle involves an RTC or a medical emergency, a fire in a vehicle today is another story. All vehicles today - be they conventional or alternative fueled - carry a significant fire load. Plastics, combustible alloys and components such as gas struts are present in every vehicle. However hybrids and all electric vehicles carry even more combustible alloys, composites and a very large high voltage battery pack consisting of Nickel Metal Hydride, NiCad or even Lith-lon battery cells. The combination of all these components creates a difficult problem for the firefighter. These changes involve not only tactical considerations on scene but even suppression agents to effectively mitigate such an incident. As time progresses, vehicles will continue to change thus emergency responders need to keep their collective fingers on the "pulse" of the technology on the street. Vehicle fires are a common type of emergency whatever the changes in vehicles have been over the past decade.