GM and the National Fire Protection Association are teaming up to develop safety programs for first responders to deal with electric vehicles.
Electric vehicles are coming, so first responders need to learn about them so they don’t get hurt and can quickly remove occupants from one after an accident.
With that in mind the National Fire Protection Association announced a joint effort with General Motors to train first responders at the scene of a crash involving an electric vehicle.
The announcement was made Thursday at the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) Fire-Rescue International Conference in Chicago where Chevrolet and OnStar demonstrated safety techniques on the 2011 Chevrolet Volt – an electric vehicle with “extended-range” capability that will be on sale in limited numbers late this year.
The Volt and the pure electric Nissan Leaf will be the most visible electric vehicles to appear on the market in the next few years, but several automakers are planning to produce more EVs.
The collaboration with GM stems from an electric vehicle safety training initiative NFPA is developing to support the growing number of electric vehicles in the United States. The initiative, funded by an American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, will include a series of electric vehicle emergency response safety programs, providing information that first responders need to most effectively deal with emergency situations involving electric vehicle technology.
NFPA will be reaching out to other auto manufacturers in an effort to include vehicle-specific information in training as more electric vehicles enter the marketplace.
Click here for a video about first responder safety and the Chevy Volt.
“With the Chevrolet Volt and other electric vehicles about to hit the streets, it is important to know that first responders are trained and ready to respond,” said Andrew Klock, NFPA’s senior project manager for the initiative. “First responders have a long history of successfully adapting their response to new automotive technologies in order to protect the public as well as themselves.”
The collaboration with GM includes the co-development of safety resources, such as web-based training materials, a vehicle extrication video and shared resources for instructor-led safety presentations. NFPA will develop training and course curriculum to ensure that first responders know how to respond to incidents involving electric vehicles.
At the IAFC Conference, GM hosted a three-hour training session that included a vehicle extrication demonstration featuring the Volt. Experts highlighted key points for first responders, including locations of high-strength steel and cut points for extrication. The extrication demonstration will be videotaped and made available for reference on the NFPA Electric Vehicle Safety Training Web site.