ClockWork wrote:Who the heck is cutting all these seatbelts?
I'm an EMT and I've never cut a seatbelt. But, we don't do 911 calls, so... And of all the firefighters I've talked to, I don't think that any of them have ever cut a seatbelt with a Knife.
It's kinda a "Try before you Pry" thing. Just press the **** button on the seat belt, and it comes off. And you won't risk stabbing the Pt.
And if for some reason you did need to cut a seat belt, ye old 4 dollar Trauma Sheers would seem like a much better option.
IDK, Are there any Firefighters or Privates that run 911 calls in here that can fill me in... maybe I'm wrong
-Clock
i have used a knife to slice through the seat belt when we are drilling on cutting up cars with the hurst tool. Lets say you have to take the top off of the car to extricate the victim. You have to cut the A, B and C pillars to do this. There is usually a reinforcing plate where the seat belt connects to the "B" pillar. First you cut the seat belt, then strip the plastic housing of the B pillar, then you can see where you should use the hurst to cut...you would obviously want to avoid the plate to make the cut easier and not cut any airbags that aren't deployed yet. I have used my yellow tasman SE on an actual run where we had to cut the guy out of the car. I don't know how the car ended up the way it did but this is how we found the victim and his car. The car slid down an off ramp, facing backwards, upside down with the the top smashed down and resting on a the concrete barrier of the oustide wall of the off ramp. The concrete wall also had a 6' chain link fence on top of it which was bent at 90 degrees to the wall. (i hope this makes sense....it is a little difficult to describe)The victim wasn't wearing a seatbelt, which in this case probably saved him because the top was crushed where his head would have been. The victim ended up in the foot well of the passenger's seat, curled up. We got to the scene around 0500 hrs so it was still dark. Myself and a coworker had to balance on this fence (it was bouncing up and down with our weight) pop the front drivers side door, then cut the front seats out to make enough room to get the victim out. In the process of cutting out the seat the seat belt was in the way, a squad guy pulled out this fancy lil seat belt cutter and it wasnt cutting :p , i put down the hurst tool for a second, unhooked my tasman and one quick slash and the seatbelt was cut in two. I also used it to cut the wires to the power passenger seat (they were the only thing holding us up from yanking it out of the car after we popped the seat off of its bolts) one more swipe for these wires, it arched a little bit and took off 2 of the smaller teeth on the tasman. A few swipes on the sharpmaker and the knife was ready for action again minus a few teeth..lol. Sorry for the long drawn out story but you asked for an example. I know alot of medics carry the shears but most fireman carry a knife, and i carry 2, one in my pocket of my pants and one on the outside of my bunkers, clipped on for easy access.
edit...also as far as not cutting the patient, the assist with the blunt tip would work pretty well also.
