Support of Electric Vehicles and Charging Facilities （5）

Editor’s Note: These series are selected from manual Electric Vehicle Community Market Launch Manual: A Guide to Prepare Your Community for Electric Vehicles which was prepared by the Electric Transportation Coalition (ETC) and the Electric Vehicle Association of the Americas (EVAA) in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT).

EV EMERGENCY RESPONSE TRAINING

EVs will require the same level of emergency response as is now available for internal-combustion-engine vehicles. To provide such service, communities must know how to minimize the risks to a variety of people—passengers; fire, rescue, and law enforcement personnel; maintenance workers; and the general public—from various vehicle collision hazards, such as electric shock and battery electrolyte spillage. To date, several EV emergency response programs have been developed by both the automotive and electric utility industries. The following case studies describe two such training programs:

American Coalition for Traffic Safety’s Electric & Hybrid Vehicle Emergency Rescue Training Program

The American Coalition for Traffic Safety (ACTS), in cooperation with General Motors Corporation, Ford Motor Company, Chrysler Corporation, Detroit Edison, DOE, CALSTART, and the Midwest Research Institute, developed the Traffic Safety Electric & Hybrid Vehicle Emergency Response Training Program, which provides information to emergency response personnel on EVs made by each of the participating automotive companies. The program includes:

  • A video and brochure detailing emergency rescue procedures and vehicle design characteristics, extrication procedures for occupants, and towing of damaged EVs
  • An instructor’s manual
  • Field cards for use at the crash scene
  • A poster containing the same information as the field cards for use in law enforcement and fire facilities

Additional information regarding the ACTS training course can be found in Volume III of the Manual.

Electricore
Electricore, one of the seven regional consortia sponsored by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) Electric and Hybrid Vehicle Demonstration Project, is preparing a training course—including manuals and a video—for emergency responders. Partnering with state and local law enforcement agencies, Electricore plans to offer this as an accredited training course for emergency rescue personnel at the local, state, and national levels.

Communities should be aware that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has been conducting research to ensure that EVs perform as safely as their internal-combustion-engine counterparts. Since 1993, NHTSA has conducted six crash tests of EVs, for which films and reports are available, and investigated four crashes or incidents involving EVs. Information on these tests and investigations are available from NHTSA’s EV safety research program. NHTSA has also published a notice in the September 30, 1994, Federal Register requesting comments on EV safety issues. Docket No. 91-94, Notice 05 contains responses to this notice, presenting the concerns of auto manufacturers, emergency responders, and others on safety issues.

Get professional detailed electric car conversion Manual, click HERE

February 22, 2008 · Filed Under Electric Car Conversion Blog

Comments

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.