In case you thought cars would become safer as technology developed… rest assured, Tesla is finding newer and ever-dumber ways to make their cars dangerous to occupants (and others).
TL;DR: If you’re in a Tesla and it loses power (like in a fire), the only way to open the doors is often an unlabeled wire behind either two panels or a speaker grill. Tesla owners are DIYing janky rip cords to make that wire easier to pull to escape.
I carry something like this in all my enclosed vehicles:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_breaker
I wonder if this would even work in a CT considering the tempered glass?
In a CT you just send a mean tweet and the glass will break. Or at least something will.
Tempered glass will break easily with either an impact style glass breaker or the automatic punch type. Most cars use tempered glass for side windows. As a retired medic who has done more than my share of nasty car accidents, I absolutely hate impact glass breakers like you find on “Rescue knives”. They almost always send broken glass shards all over my patient and I’m forced to kneel in said glass while working. The auto punch style tends to drop the glass shards more straight down minimizing having glass everywhere.
More Pro Tips from an old firefighter/rescue squad/medic: a $3.50US Harbor Freight auto center punch works as well for breaking glass as those fancy $50US glass breakers and is a worthy addition to your glove box. Toss a pencil and paper in there to take notes if needed also.
Safety glass cannot be broken with a glass breaker because it’s a laminated glass with a plastic film holding everything together. It can be sawed with something as simple as a dull reciprocating saw blade though. But you need to get a hole into it first. A fire ax is probably the go to tool for that, but a Halligan tool will also work. (Pro tip: A Halligan tool will solve most issues involving things that block your way.) Some cars do use safety glass for side windows.
Super Important Pro Tip: Always, always try before you pry. No matter how bad an accident scene might look, it’s amazing at what still works. Doors open, seat belts release, (in 20 years I never needed to cut a seat belt), and widows roll down, (even electric ones).
Final Pro Tip: Always, always be cautious when approaching a wreak. Stay away from the low side of a wreak and be super extra fearful of a car on it’s side. Look under the car before you get close. Look for leaking fluids. Stay up wind of an EV if you see any kind smoke. Those fumes can kill you. Be wary of undetonated air bags. Don’t stick your head into the car. About 100 cops are killed every year in the US because they get stupid and stick their heads into that situation.
All in all, the ultimate rule in rescue is “You are there to be a part of the solution to the problem. Don’t be stupid and become part of the problem.”
I have a lot of personal experience that confirms this (not necessarily cars, but other mangled things that trap people). It is pretty wild some times at how bad something looks but still functions.
Appreciate all the info!
I did forget to add the warning to that. That because it’s amazing what still works, you need to be very careful because of those things that still function. Things might look safe but a bump or just bad luck something decides it’s going to move or spin due to a stray electrical impulse or release of stored energy. And now you are part of the problem.
Scene Safety above all else!
“Try before you pry” got a muscle-level, knee-jerk reaction for me XD
Some aspects of training really stick with you. If I’m getting out of my truck to clear debris or whatever off the road, I can practically hear my training officer asking if the scene is safe.
Thanks for the pro tips! Agreed, Halligan tool is the cure for all that ails you
Keep your Irons in hand, your head on a swivel, and be safe out there and have some fun!
They didn’t need to tell me to have fun - I was having a fucking BLAST! I had that young-person invincibility thing going on.
Now, medical calls, those were a whole different deal. And unfortunately that was probably 95% of my calls, I had the EMT-B cert and most the other volunteers didn’t XD
Traumas are cool, but medicals are the true challenge to your skills. They can be intricate puzzles that can test you to the brink.
Smart.
It would not work on a CT, unfortunately. A hammer, rock, or tree branch will do in a pinch, or one Good Samaritan managed to do it with his bare hands to rescue a kid from a fire (he went full Rip and Tear mode, and peeled it off the track I guess)
Mad respect for the random stranger who unleashed his inner gorilla adrenaline.
something like this? a resqme?
we have this and i gifted it to family and friends too
Might not work on laminated glass
TIL that that “might” is an understatement. It doesn’t work https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJ96pg9D_30
also found this https://rescue42.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/The-Ripper-White-Paper.pdf
Thanks for that.
Yea, that’s a lot more like the ones I have
From what I have gathered glass breakers don’t work on
tempered glasslaminated glass (which is what newer cars are now using). I read somewhere that fire fighters essentially have to use a sawzall in order to get through a window like that. Pretty much everything I can think of that’s almost as compact as a glass break requires power or batteries of some kind which would be yet another thing to remember to charge and maintain.Not that it would be OK as a commercial product, but I have wondered how small a shape charge could get and still make a good enough opening for egress.
You read right. Sawzall is not suitable for glass without a special blade, though. It’s easier to use a similar tool called a GlassMaster.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wx1FrAQ9SVw
Before cordless sawzall’s became a thing, every fire depadtment/rescue squad would make up a handle that you could attach a used sawzall blade to for cutting safety glass windshields. And they still carry them to this day as a backup. They are amazingly effective. You just need a hole to get started.
These days, every rescue/fire truck carries a cordless sawzall as the go to for such jobs. No special blade required.
Ahh, I was just about to go on a rabbit hole looking for this info. Thanks!
Amazing how this looks like a Tim & Eric skit.
You are thinking about Safety glass and not tempered glass. safety glass has plastic film laminated between some layers of glass.
Tempered glass doesn’t have that and when stressed at a small point, crumbles quite satisfyingly easy.
You are correct, I had terms swapped around in my head. Tempered glass is what glass break devices were designed for. Newer cars are swapping their tempered glass windows for laminated glass windows which traditional glass break devices do not work on.
Yeah, there a few cars out there that do have safety glass rather than just tempered glass installed as side windows. But they are fairly uncommon due to the high cost and at least one engineer’s thought that safety glass might not be the safest thing in that application. Because it does make it more difficult to quickly gain access to an injured person if needed.
I think BMW has a couple models with safety glass for side windows. But it’s been a hot minute since I have needed to concern myself with such minutia.
AFAIK all you need for tempered glass is a bit of ceramic material (spark plugs are an easy way to get this), at least for the side windows. Windshields are a different type of glass. Mohs scale.
That’s fascinating that a sawzall could even do something to tempered glass if one of these spring loaded breakers and a hefty tip doesn’t do anything. I guess it’s got to do with the angle of attack/vibrations. Very interesting.
Does this work on tinted windows
Great question, which also led me to laminated glass
https://youtu.be/kJ96pg9D_30
I have a feeling tinting won’t be as much of an issue. If anything, it will keep the shattered glass more held together, but still shatter and weaken it enough to kick out (or for water pressure to do the job for you). I can’t find any videos on a cursory search for tinted windows, though.
I guess something is better than nothing. Tint I feel like is not as powerful as laminated glass. It’s not fused with the glass just a sticker