The 'body shop in reverse' of emergency extrication

Dec. 3, 2018
Understanding how first responder extrication and rescue practices are changing to account for today’s modern steels can assist repair technicians with assessing damage and planning and executing repairs to modern vehicles which have been the subject of extrication modifications.

Automotive advanced high-strength steels (AHSS) and ultra high-strength steels (UHSS) have changed many of the long-standing techniques and practices for auto body repair shops. The same is true for the fire and rescue professionals who often must create further damage to a vehicle in the service of saving lives at an accident site. Understanding how first responder extrication and rescue practices are changing to account for today’s modern steels can assist repair technicians with assessing damage and planning and executing repairs to modern vehicles which have been the subject of extrication modifications.

Ron Moore

For the best perspective on how AHSS and UHSS are changing the way rescue personnel interact with vehicles when extrication is necessary, the Steel Market Development Institute (SMDI), a business unit of the American Iron and Steel Institute, works with an expert on the topic — Ron Moore. A former battalion chief in a suburban Dallas-Fort Worth fire department, Moore is a nationally-recognized expert on extrication. He’s the author of the widely used textbook “Vehicle Rescue and Extrication.” Additionally, Moore trains fire, rescue, EMS and law enforcement personnel across the nation on how to safely rescue and extricate drivers and passengers from vehicles of all kinds.

The basics of extrication are a constant, Moore explains: Rescue personnel need access to the people inside the vehicle, room to work on them in place if necessary and a path for safe removal of all involved. This can range from the standard “door job,” as it’s known in the fire rescue community, to removing instrument panels, roofs or pillars, forcing compartments open and more.

Where there’s been crushing, bending or folding of vehicle structures putting occupants at risk, rescue personnel can either move or remove those materials based on the requirements of the specific situation. The materials involved factor into this decision on the scene, as some tactics such as door frame spreading, which worked in the past with traditional steel body structures, may fail when advanced or ultra high-strength steels are involved.

Tougher vehicles, tougher opponents

In general, Moore calls modern AHSS-intensive vehicles a “tougher opponent” for rescue personnel thanks to the strength of the materials they’re now working against, often in a race against the clock. While the increasing crashworthiness of vehicles means fewer extrication jobs, the new strength of the materials they’re modifying means, “when they are trapped, we have more work to do.”

“It’s becoming the norm for side-impact collisions with people trapped inside to remove the B-pillar altogether, and increasingly we’re ‘making the car a convertible’ by taking off the roof,” he explained. In the past, spreaders could move B-pillars far enough out of the way for most access needs, but the strength built into modern AHSS-intensive B-pillars means they resist displacement to such a degree rescuers find it easier to cut through three sides and then use a spreader to bend it out of the way, if not remove it entirely.

Additionally, many traditional techniques involved “crush-then-cut” for components such as pillar assemblies. But with the advent of AHSS, crushing became so difficult to accomplish, techniques have evolved to either cut as-is or crush while cutting, if the available tools allow.

Also, the increased need for access to structural members for cutting or spreading means rescuers are increasingly removing the instrument panel entirely by “rolling” or “jacking the dash,” a process often including fender removal to allow full access to instrument panel assemblies.

Moore expects extrication will continue to evolve as UHSS become more common, with potential implications for the types of damage repairers will see in their shops. “The first-generation AHSS didn’t fight us the way Third-Generation AHSS does,” he says. “We’re up against a tougher opponent, one that often requires more extensive work. For instance, we’re finding that cutting is often necessary where spreading had been sufficient in the past.”

The new 2019 Ram is the strongest 1500 to date, featuring 54 percent high-strength steel in the cab and more than 98 percent high-strength steel in the frame. The use of high-strength steel in the frame enables noise-, vibration- and harshness (NVH) reduction measures, weight savings of nearly 225 pounds and greater rigidity for improved handling and durability.

New tools

The common rescue toolkit of reciprocating saws, air chisels and hydraulic shears, spreaders and rams would be familiar to any repair shop. But just as repair shops have done when legacy tools proved ineffective against AHSS-intensive components, fire rescue departments have upgraded their tools in recent years.

These tools used by emergency responders are regulated under the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 1936 “Standard on Powered Rescue Tools,” which was created in 1999 and updated in 2005 and 2010 to keep pace with evolving technologies. “Over the last decade, rescue tool manufacturers recognized what was going on with high-strength steels,” explains Moore. “Starting around 2008 or 2009, they began to produce a whole new generation of more powerful tools and new designs. Pretty much every fire department has traded in their older-generation gear, which usually dated back to the 80s or 90s but had since been outgunned by high-strength steels.”

Worth the work

According to Moore, emergency personnel appreciate the value of modern steels and often seek out AHSS-intensive vehicles for their own families. This is because fire departments are increasingly arriving at crash scenes where, in his words, “The cars are bent, crumpled and folded and we expect the worst, but the drivers are standing outside exchanging insurance information because the structure of the vehicle remained intact.”

High-strength steel and advanced high-strength steel are used in the 2018 Honda Odyssey’s A, B and C-pillars, roof rails, front and rear rails and front subframe, allowing the vehicle’s cabin structure to better manage front, side, roof and rear collisions.

A practical partnership for safer communities

Moore may joke extrication is essentially “a body shop in reverse,” but suggests the fundamental connection between rescue and repair personnel means there’s opportunities for both sides to learn from the other. Repair technicians can benefit from understanding how vehicles are modified during extrication when they’re working to return those vehicles to safe roadworthiness; while emergency personnel can benefit from collision technicians’ intimate knowledge of the vehicles themselves.

“I believe collision repair professionals have a great deal to teach emergency rescue personnel about the vehicles we’re likely to encounter,” Moore said. “They’re the experts, they know these cars, trucks and SUVs inside and out in a way we never could and can coach and advise us on things that might end up saving a life. But at the same time, if a repair technician has the opportunity to watch how we go about doing our extrication work, they may gain a new understanding of what needs to be done to repair the vehicle.”

This creates an opportunity for repair shops to reach out and build practical partnerships with their local fire departments. Moore suggests repair shops who find themselves with crash-damaged late-model vehicles destined for the scrap yard contact their local fire department and offer to host rescue personnel to perform a practice mock extrication on the vehicle. “Virtually any fire department I know of would jump at that opportunity,” he says.

Many fire departments – especially in rural or low-income communities – can go multiple years without having the opportunity to let their personnel practice on the kind of late-model vehicles they’re most likely to encounter on an emergency call. This makes the offer by a collision shop of a practice session a precious opportunity to build real-world skills which could save lives in the local community.

Most shops who do this also invite their own repair technicians to attend and learn, taking advantage of the opportunity to watch a vehicle get dismantled on their shop floor or parking lot. Moore says when he’s led these sessions, repair technicians regularly tell him how interesting and valuable the experience was.

This kind of partnership between repair shop and fire department provides not only practical value, but also builds goodwill in the community at minimal cost: “The car’s still going to the scrapyard, it’s just going in a few more pieces than it would have otherwise,” Moore concluded.

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