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Cutting the steering wheel off ????
This is a technique that we do not use, however I have heard that people do it this way. I dont feel there is no need to do this. What are your thoughts of why and why not.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by T.J. on
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We've never cut the steering colum before, but we've cut the steering wheel (ring)off before, but that would be as far as we'd go, you can ram the rest.
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Permalink Reply by Joe Stoltz on
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A couple of additional reasons why we don't cut the steering column. One, the tilt wheel mechanism, and two, the air bags resident in the steering wheels these days. Often the bags are deployed in a crash, but not always.
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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Like this
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Permalink Reply by Justin Buck on
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i would just get hydraulic lift and roll the dash up
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Note that this car has a driver's side frontal SRS airbag that did not deploy due to the sideways impact. This car slid sideways and was partially wrapped around a power pole at the driver's door. The battery was not accessible prior to extrication. The vehicle did not have side impact protection, as evidenced by the lack of an air curtain or deployed air bags between the driver's seat and the door.
Extrication was accomplished by forcing the driver's side rear door, laying the driver's seat back down, and cutting the bottom of the steering ring away. Total extrication time was under 5 minutes, the car electrical system was energized, and no accidental deployment of SRS devices occurred due to good size-up and extrication techniques.
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wow, less than 5 minutes thats great time and a fast extrication, its hard to do a rapid extrication in less time than that, cudo's for those firefighters:)
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Permalink Reply by Paul Montpetit on
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Why cut it...?? If it is in the way why not rig a chain from the front frame over the hood to the column and use the "jaws" to pull it straight away from the patient...? Easier and definitely safer....try it in training sometime....you will be amazed at the speed and efficiency of this technique....Stay safe and remember to keep the faith...........Paul
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Paul, there are several reasons that you might not want to use the old-school pulling techniques on steering columns.
1) Tilt wheel steering columns may fail at the tilt knuckle. This can flip the column and injure the patient further.
2) Steering column chain pulls were invented long before crumple zones. Crumple zones are designed to deform when stressed. Using a chain-pull technique wastes a lot of leverage and may be ineffective when used on cars with front crumple zones.
3) Steering column pulls don't move the dashboard - they just move the column. Dash rolls and dash lifts can create a lot more room in a relatively short time.
4) In severe frontal collisions, using a chain pull technique on the steering column may not be effective because the frame anchor points may be destroyed or inaccessible.
5) In severe dashboard displacements, running a chain to the column requires an anchor beneath the engine compartment or on another frontal hard point. The puts the chain in a C shape when viewed from the side. Compressing that C may actually make the pin worse and further injure the patient. particularly where the front end is heavily damaged and there is not purchase point to lift the column as you pull it.
Pulling techniques have some utility, and I don't completely discount them, but pushing/lifting techniques generally get you more bang for the buck, given car anatomy changes in the past 15 years.
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Permalink Reply by lutan1 on
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1) Tilt wheel steering columns may fail at the tilt knuckle. This can flip the column and injure the patient further.
I've tried and tried and tried in training to get these to fail catastrophically- hasn't happened yet. Also remember that we generally only need a small amount of room to untangle someone- very rarely do we need to pull to the point where it may fail anyway.
3) Steering column pulls don't move the dashboard - they just move the column. Dash rolls and dash lifts can create a lot more room in a relatively short time.
I agree on the time issue, but a full pull will move the dash, but as stated above,we generally don't need that amount of room.
5) In severe dashboard displacements, running a chain to the column requires an anchor beneath the engine compartment or on another frontal hard point. The puts the chain in a C shape when viewed from the side. Compressing that C may actually make the pin worse and further injure the patient. particularly where the front end is heavily damaged and there is not purchase point to lift the column as you pull it.
I'm not understanding how it can make the pin worse????
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Not sure if I get what your saying here Lutan, you say you can do a steering wheel bumper pull and not get the knuckle to fail and you'll only need to move it a little bit. I agree with you so far, but then the next thing you say is that you can do a dash roll in a steering wheel bumper pull, well I'd feel that would be putting a lot of pressure on theat knuckle of the column and I'm not willing to try that out on a real scene. Would seem easier to just use the rams, but all scene's are different for sure.
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Permalink Reply by Crockett on
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Won't touch a COLUMN containing undeployed SRS. (Spokes, yes.) Use tilt steering option if still working. Move seat all the way back & down. If powered seats/tilt, do so BEFORE disconnecting battery. And yes, a (full) roof flap & dash roll is the...uh...my...preferred option for pin-ins (situation allowing). Just make sure you and your crew know your equipment's capabilities and OPERATING LIMITS. Remember- size up the scene & safety first.
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