I assume part of the training is how to locate the right stuff to cut to shut off the high-voltage connection? Have you ever had to do that in practice, and if so how hard is it on a car that's been mangled?
The car manufacturers use bright colors (typically fluorescent orange) on cables that carry high voltage. We don't cut them! Too dangerous. Instead we avoid them, and assume that the car is energized.
I know you wouldn't cut high-voltage wiring, but I know at least on a Tesla there's a low-voltage loop exposed for firefighters to cut, which then isolates the high-voltage system as well as disabling the air bags and such. That's shown on page 10-13 here:
I have no idea if this is a common thing or not. Anyway, thanks for the PDF, very interesting stuff. Assuming the car is energized seems sensible. Even with a loop like Tesla has, I imagine you can't count on that having the intended effect after the car has crashed.
Very nice. I was somewhat aware of the materials they provide, but I didn't know that video existed. I'm kind of impressed they sacrificed a car for it (although I suppose many of the valuable spare parts remained untouched).
