It doesn't take a genius (or Biglorryblog) to work out that the truck accidents present unique challenges for the emergency services, especially when it comes to rescuing injured and incapacited drivers from their cabs. Truck drivers suffer vewry diferent injuries to car drivers, not least to the lower body when they are involved in a collision.So BLB offers a round of applause and a "Yo respeck!" for Mercedes-Benz who has been doing its bit to help ensure rescue teams get plenty of practice before they have to deal with the real thing.
What you see here is a a recent demonstration of the rescue of an injured driver from a truck cab was demonstrated to a large audience for the first time during the Truck Grand Prix at the Nürburgring. The fire and resue professionals showed how drivers are rescued from an Atego or Actros cab using a hydraulic cutter/spreader system. And they didn't do things by halves as a previously crash-tested Atego and a brand new Actros were cut open for the purpose of the rescue crew training.
The live demonstrations during the Truck Grand Prix were conducted under the joint-banner: "Preventing accidents" and "Rescuing accident victims". Interestingly enough Mercedes says that in the past this typoe of exercise only ever staged in front of experts from the rescue services. However, this was the first time that the rescue of accident victims was shown in front of such a large audience.
In fact over the two days, more than 150,000 people saw the presentation live on the large-screen grandstand monitors, in addition to the 300+ spectators at the actual demonstration scene. That's really getting the message across!
The rescue presentations were staged by 20 members of the Ravensburg fire-fighting service, together with Dr. Rainer Zinser, an orthopaedic surgeon who specialises in truck accidents, paramedics from Adenau, specialist cutter manufacturer Weber, as well as the team from Mercedes-Benz.
Meanwhile the rescue wehicles comprised two Mercedes LF 16/20 fire tenders (naturally) including the very latest model from Rosenbauer developed on the Atego, a rapid-response rescue vehicle built on the basis of a cross-country vehicle, as well as a rescue vehicle belonging to the Adenau branch of the German Red Cross.
The guy inside the 'crashed' Atego---a truck driver chosen from amongst the spectators---was hauled out of the vehicle after just 15 minutes, while the Actros driver was 'rescued' in around 25 minutes. This was despite the frequent pauses to explain each of the individual steps to the rescue personnel present and to the spectators.
According to Mercedes (and I love the way the Germans describe it): "Accident rescue from a truck is like opening a tin of sardines. In a series of individual steps, the cab was first fixed in position by means of tensioning straps, the front windscreen sawn out, the driver's door prised off its hinges using a spreader, the cab separated at the A-pillar, then the door sill slit open using a Y-cut, as it is known, in order to allow the crushed cab to be expanded using telescopic rescue rams. Finally, the accident victim was properly attended to by the emergency medic and the paramedics before being rescued from the vehicle by the fire crew. Simple when you know how isn't it? And a big BLB 'hats off' to Mercedes for helping the emergency services help truck crash victims----that's what BLB calls real 'on the road support'.
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