Firefighters Shown How Air Bags Can Be a Rescue Hazard

With a loud boom and trails of smoke, an automobile air bag was inflated for local firefighters this week as part of a special training class.

Sponsored by a pair of automotive businesses, the class focused on how rescue workers should approach car wrecks when the air bags have not yet inflated.

While officials stressed the important role air bags play in preventing injuries and saving lives, uninflated bags can pose a hazard for rescue workers at crash scenes.

“There are those cases where the air bag is not deployed,” said Santa Ana Battalion Chief Thomas W. Skelly, who sat in on the class Wednesday. “And it’ll scare the hell out of you.”

About 20 firefighters and other city workers watched a video of an Ohio firefighter who was knocked to the ground when an air bag inflated during a rescue.

The firefighter needed the ambulance meant for the crash victim because his head and chest injuries were deemed more serious.

Because air bags are set off by front-end collisions, a bag may not inflate if a car rolls over or is hit from behind, said Sam Massey, the air bag expert who taught the class.

Santa Ana firefighters have long known about the dangers of setting off air bags at crash scenes and have learned how to disable car batteries and air bag cables.

But the session Wednesday was the first hands-on class for the firefighters. All Santa Ana firefighters will receive similar training by the end of the year.

Nationwide, about a half-dozen rescue workers in the past two years have been injured by air bags that deployed after they arrived on the scene, Massey said, but that number could rise with more cars carrying air bags.

No Santa Ana firefighters have been injured by air bags at crash scenes, Skelly said.