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Dutchman Dies in Tesla Crash; Firefighters Feared Electrocution (reuters.com)
A Dutchman died on Wednesday after his Tesla collided with a tree, according to local authorities, and it took firefighters hours to remove his body from the vehicle due to fears they could be electrocuted. Reuters reports: The cause of the crash on a highway about 40 kilometers east of Amsterdam was not known. Photos of the crash scene published by local media showed the back of the car mostly intact but its front smashed in and parts strewn about. Tesla said it was "working with the authorities to establish the facts of the incident" and would publish its findings as soon as they were available. A spokeswoman said it was not known whether the car was using "autopilot", Tesla's driving assistance technology, at the time of the crash, and that would form part of the investigation. A fatal crash of a Tesla Model S in the United States earlier this year knocked the company's shares and raised concerns about whether automated driving technology was being released to consumers safely.
For larger buildings, the first thing they'll do is shut off the power. That's the reason data centers usually have the "big red button"; that is there to make it "safe" for firefighters. The 240VAC main in a typical house (at least in the US) is much less dangerous than the high-voltage DC found in electric cars.
Also, while you can get a short by spraying water across live electrical lines, they are not liable to explode like lithium batteries.
Were they overly cautious? Possibly. Are there legitimate concerns about how to deal with the electric cars? Yes. Should they be handled with better training? Also yes.
Not like Tesla has any guide for First Responders to help in said training efforts. Oh wait, they do. https://www.tesla.com/firstres...
TFA says that since they had already determined that the driver was dead, they were extra cautious. They do have protocols for dealing with electric cars, and would doubtless have acted quicker if there had been a chance to save the driver. As it was, they waited for an expert to come and give it a once over, which seems prudent.
We have a fundamental problem: our brains tend to confuse the availability and prevalence of information about something with the prevalence of the underlying event.
Here, the news is reporting on every serious Tesla crash, creating the false impression that these are dangerous cars -- we aren't seeing a report on every Corolla crash, say.
I think the same bias plays into current panic over child abductions, which is distorting evaluation of common parenting strategies like letting kids play by themselves: it's not that abductions today are more common in the past, but that today's media is much better equipped to discover and wildly and rapidly disseminate information about them.
The reason was because the car was engulfed in flames and the occupant was already dead. It's not like they didn't extinguish the fire or let the occupant die. You can use large amounts of water to extinguish Lithium battery fires (removing both heat and oxygen) and these batteries are dry, not pure liquid lithium. This would be similar for a gas powered car if the gas tank is engulfed, fire fighters won't risk recovering corpses or property if there is a substantial risk of an explosion.
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actually, having seen the guidance Tesla issued to first responders, _small amounts_ of water are the last thing you want. Lots and lots of water to cool it down, on the other hand, is the prescribed method to extinguish Tesla battery fires.
I think you're all missing the point here:
Tesla's KILLER ROBOTS 2 , Humanity 0
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Unfortunately we still have to do it that way in Kansas, there are only 3 abortion clinics in the whole state.
"If there was a gay Afro-Puertorican Linux distribution, I'd give it a try" ~lucm
They know what to do with modern vehicles. I understand the rush to be a first poster rather than actually reading the article.
If you had actually read the article you would have seen:
//TODO: Think of witty sig statement
On p. 14, "Cutting the front trunk first responder loop", it shows how to disable the high voltage. Under the hood there is a coiled loop of red wire with a big bright orange label with a picture of wire cutters. You cut the red wire. This shuts down the high voltage system outside of the high voltage battery itself. For extra safety, you cut a section out of it so it won't reconnect accidentally.
IMO they should put this on the first page. But at least it is there.
From the article: "Photos of the crash scene published by local media showed the back of the car mostly intact but its front smashed in and parts strewn about."
I'm guessing that they probably couldn't see the label or if they could it wasn't near the coiled loop of red wire anymore.
I don't want to pay firefighters to be trained in a car that .000001% of the populace has. There is much more beneficial training to be had.
And yet all firefighters receive extensive hazmat training, despite cars carrying hazardous materials being .000001% of the population. Even trucks carrying hazardous materials are a tiny fraction of all truck miles driven. They can get the training and you can fucking pay for it.
First off, there was no fire.
Really? Because the linked article says "Newspaper De Telegraaf reported the car's battery was broken, and part of it caught fire and was difficult to extinguish." which clearly indicates that there was a fire.
Seriously, do they not train rescue workers? If so then why don't they train them to respond to electric and hybrid vehicle crashes so that they know what's safe and what's not? It's their job, they should know what the heck they're doing.
The linked article also says "De Boer said since firefighters were certain the victim had died immediately after the crash, it did not make sense for rescue workers to take unneeded risks in recovering his body." which clearly explains why the firefighters didn't risk their lives even if the chance of electrocution was very small.
Maybe next time you're about to go off on a rant like this, you should take the time to read the linked article before you make yourself look stupid in public.
"I would bet most fire departments have little training yet on EV batteries."
You lose that bet. Firefighters are trained to handle metal fires like sodium and lithium. Battery or raw element makes zero difference, their training should've had them able to handle that fire. Protip: Class D fire extinguisher (I was a volunteer firefighter.)
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.