New Car Dangers

2009 Sigma Delta Chi Awards

INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING
New Car Dangers
Christopher Heath Reporter
Larry Burns Photojournalist/Editor
Ken Huizar Photojournalist
11/18/093:37
The same devices that keep you alive in a crash can also keep you trapped in your vehicle; and in the rush to improve vehicle safety, new cars may both protect you and trap you at the same time.
The basic idea for New Car Dangers began with a conversation with a body shop owner. He remarked how foreign automobiles and most high-end domestic automobiles were being made with new super-strong steel - steel so strong, most fire departments cannot cut through it.
In the last 5 years, Congress, working with the National Highway Safety Administration, has accelerated the safety guidelines for vehicles sold in the U.S. Side curtain airbags and stronger, lighter steels are a result of these new guidelines.
While it is unquestionable that the new safety features have dramatically increased the survivability for drivers and passengers in an accident, the features have also left emergency workers scrambling to keep up.
The new, stronger steel being used in vehicles is specifically designed to protect the cabin of the vehicle during a side-impact accident. Unfortunately, the extraction tools used by emergency workers to cut through steel after an accident cannot, in most cases, cut through the new steel.
In San Antonio, the fire department has 18 sets of extraction tools, also known as the jaws of life; however, the city has only been able to afford one new set of tools strong enough to cut this new steel. Making matters worse, firefighters still run into steel that cannot be cut, even with the new tools.
Volunteer and small city departments cannot afford such upgrades. As a result, firefighters are being taught to cut around the new steel.
The problem with cutting around the steel is that air bag cylinders and high-voltage lines for hybrid cars are located at various places throughout the frame of the vehicle, depending on the make and model.
The problem with this story is that we were essentially finding fault with safety.
It took weeks to find steel experts who could talk about how strong the new steel is and explain how it is a danger if firefighters have to cut around it.
Gathering details from car manufactures and NHTSA consumed several days since regulations vary depending on where the car is manufactured.
The response to the story was tremendous. The simple fact is that the best laid plans often have unforeseen consequences, and these are just a few of them.

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News & Politics

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[m1a1jake]

the reporter had a weird way of stressing syllables in some words

[compu85]

Kind of odd saying making newer cars safer is dangerous...