[Sethd85]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/18/autom ... YBRID.html

I don't like the sound of having to wait inside my future Prius while the rescue officials figure out how to turn it off and get me out.

Hopefully fire departments and police will take the time to educate themselves.

 

[KTPhil]

They already have. It's a non-issue. Air bags have already caused FDs to study car systems before using the jaws of life, so this is just another page in their same book.

Typical scare tactics from a bored or sold-out writer...

 

[Sethd85]

They already have. It's a non-issue. Air bags have already caused FDs to study car systems before using the jaws of life, so this is just another page in their same book.

Typical scare tactics from a bored or sold-out writer...

Funny how quickly you write this off. It think this is quite an issue; fire and police departments learning how to "handle" cars with airbags is not the same as learning how to handle a accident involving a high-voltage hybrid vehicle.

 

[Victor]

YAWN.

This is such an old topic that was addressed back in 1997 when the first Prius arrived in the USA, and before that in Japan. Its a non-issue - FUD. The 1st response teams have all the info they need (Ive seen it) and thay also know not to cut thick orange eletric cables.

They also dont need to disconnect the battery as that also heppens automatically. In the unlikly event that the auto-disconnect doesnt work, then the 1st responce would have to cut the car in half, through the bottom of the car where in conventional rear wheel drive cars the driveshaft goes. How often does that happen? I guess you could count that on the fingers of one foot.

I would be more worried about a gas leak and some bystander smoking if I was you.

 

[DanMan32]

YAWN.

That was EXACTLY what I was going to post.
To top it off, there is a safety plug/fuse that splits the battery in half electrically, rendering it inoperative.

Toyota has a rescue response publication on all their electric/hybrid vehicles: http://techinfo.toyota.com/public/main/erg.html

The hybrid batteries are no dangerous than the airbags, gasoline and the lead acid 12V battery.