Eagle County, CO New Prius Fleet-Employee concern, getting hit from behind & battery

This is just stupid.

In an accident, I'd be a hell of a lot more worried about that eleven gallons of highly flammable, explosively combustible liquid in the gas tank rather than the battery. Just based on how far it can move your car it has to contain over 100x more energy than the battery.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(priusenvy @ Mar 14 2007, 11:34 AM) [snapback]405463[/snapback]</div>

A bit more. A gallon of gasoline has about 35 kWh (123 MJ) of energy stored up in it. Of course, a typical ICE wastes about 80% of that energy as heat and still gets a ways down the road on a full tank.

I'd be much more worried about getting killing in a roll over in an SUV and getting roasted by the battery in a Prius. Esp in CO where SUVs litter the highway during a good snow storm and quite a few of them roll.

 

Based on some real world experience by PC members I don't think anyone has to worry about exploding batteries in an accident.

However, one does need to be careful not to knock over the burning Sterno cans when driving through the convenience store.

 

I sent the county a link to the Prius Emergency Response Guide, and congratulated them on their wise choice.

 

Hi All,

I may be wrong on this, but I though the first use of fuel bladders was in Vietnam error American Helicopters. The bladers would not burst open with impact into the ground. Giving the crew a chance at surviving. Later, these bladders were mandated for many car racing series.

The Prius fuel bladder, and location of the tank ahead of the rear axle would make it very safe in a rear impact.

The Prius battery has a ground fault interupter (just like your bathroom should have), which isolates the battery in the metal box, if there is any current flowing to chasis. So, a cut feed wire will instantly disconnect the battery from the feed cables.

The most hazardous thing in the back of a Prius may be the auxiliary lead-acid battery. Its located all the way back and outboard. It has reasonable current capacity to cause some smoke.

 

Self sealing fuel tanks were used in WWII, many US aircraft had them. Most other did not.

Self sealing fuel tanks are nothing more then fuel bladers mounted inside a tank.

Only the bladers were made up of diffrent layers that when exposed to gas and each
other bonded back together.

 

"How safe it is to have the battery in the trunk of the car was cause for concern among other finance department employees."

I was in my Prius, stopped at a light. A small truck hit me from behind, no skid marks and witnesses estimated the speed at around 50 mph. My Prius was totalled, as it hit a car in front after the original rear impact. The large battery wasn't close to being damaged. There is a crush zone for what seems like about one foot, then stiffer. I wasn't injured, and any concern about the large battery in a crash should evaporate after this "test".

CraigCSJ

 

With all of the Prius' running around, this issue would have become a concern real quick if it had any basis.

In addition to the energy content of the battery being very limited, it is a solid pack with no liquid acids involved.

There is no basis for concern here.

 

When I got my Prius, my friends came up with all sorts of misinformed questions about it. Like how long do I plug it in at night. But one of them said that I'd better not get in an accident because the EMS will not go near a wrecked Prius because they feared being electrocuted! Man, who perpetuates all this nonsense? I asked him how the EMS felt about entering a car with explosive gasoline, and he just shut up.

 

Ha Ha Ha, thats funny that this post was made. We just got a fax from our Denver office like last week on the increased hazards of extracating a person involved in a severe crash with a Hybrid. they also mentioned the higher chance of us having to call out HazMat. I mentioned to my fellow dispatchers that it would have to be one HELL of a crash probably involving more than one Hybrid to cause a higher risk for our Troopers, not to mention having us call out out a HazMat team.

I feel comfortable in the Prius. If there was a chance of the battery becoming a hazard in a crash(an obviously hard hit from any angle) I would definately be dead no matter what car I was driving Hybrid or Not.

 

Hey, TomorrowMatters, check out Toyota's Material Distribution Center. There are complete ERG manuals there for all of Toyota's alternative fuel cars, including Fuel Cell Hybrid, Rav4 EV, and CNG Camry.

The Dismanteling Manuals are interesting too.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Bill Merchant @ Mar 19 2007, 02:11 PM) [snapback]408523[/snapback]</div>

Thanks, thats good info that we should know.

 

It's getting more and more tempting to print out a bunch of the
ERGs and go around to the local town police/fire/rescue departments
and drop them off and just make sure they *know* how little hazard
a hybrid's battery presents. In the Prius, it's mounted between the
wheels and has several chassis stiffening members that use the
battery box as part of the structure. If the box does get dented
far enough to hit the battery contacts [unlikely, as we've seen]
then it's all self-contained in a steel shell with the relays to
the outside world electrically cut off and the worst that happens
is a little plastic gets burned up inside the case.
.
Preaching to the choir here, certainly, but please consider the idea
of getting the word out amongst your own local responders. I'm
sure Toyota wouldn't object in the slightest.
.
_H*