Vehicle and Machinery Rescue
What this domain covers
This domain tests extrication from cars, trucks, buses, and industrial machinery: stabilization, access, disentanglement, patient care, and the specific hazards of modern vehicles - supplemental restraint systems (SRS), high-voltage systems, and stored energy in machinery.
Sequence and rules
- Scene safety and stabilization: chock or crib the vehicle, use struts or air bags, and remember 'lift an inch, crib an inch'. Never work under a load you have not cribbed.
- Patient access and assessment, then an extrication plan: door displacement, roof removal, dash lift or dash roll, or third-door conversion.
- Disentanglement, packaging, transfer.
- SRS: identify airbag and pretensioner locations - steering wheel, dash, A/B/C pillars, roof rails, seat sides. Disconnect the 12 V battery and follow the manufacturer's wait time; capacitors can hold a charge. Cut away from inflators.
- Hybrid and electric: orange cable is high voltage - do not cut it. Power down per the rescue sheet. Lithium-ion battery fires need large volumes of water and may re-ignite.
- Machinery: lockout/tagout, block hydraulic and pneumatic rams, and treat any fluid injection injury as a surgical emergency.
Worked example
A vehicle is on its roof in a ditch with one patient. You crib under the roof line and the wheels, chock the chassis, disconnect 12 V, and wait the manufacturer's stated time. You then cut the B and C pillars and fold the roof, keeping cutters clear of the roof-rail airbag and the seat-belt pretensioner at the B-pillar base.
Traps
Cutting a pillar without checking for a pretensioner. Lifting a dash without cribbing. Missing crush syndrome in a long entrapment.