Car accidents are an unfortunate part of life. Although traveling by car is getting safer, the reality is that you or someone you love is likely to be involved in a car accident at some point.
Half the battle of surviving a car accident is the safety precautions that reside in the car itself. Things like seat belts, airbags, and crash zones can directly improve your chances of surviving a car accident during the event itself, but what happens after the accident? When emergency personnel arrive on the scene, what can they do to get you out of the totaled vehicle?
Perhaps one of the most common, yet widely misunderstood, auto accident survival devices are hydraulic rescue tools, frequently referred to by their trademarked name “Jaws of Life.” This innovative tool set has a number of unique advantages over older, less effective and even dangerous tools such as saws, axes and crowbars.
Saws are useful in some applications, but they can create sparks when cutting metal, which can be dangerous at car accident scenes due to the presence of flammable liquids and vapors. They also tend to be quite loud, which can further antagonize a victim who has already been traumatized by a car accident, and not all saws can cut through the strong materials used by automakers in most modern cars.
Axes and crowbars are also moderately effective, due to being limited by the strength of the user and the structural integrity of the car. In some serious car accidents, the movement of an ax or crowbar used to pry open a stuck door or collapsed roof can cause most of the car to move, endangering both the victim and rescuers.
Hydraulic rescue tools circumvent those dangers and provide a host of other important safety features. Its strong jaws can cut through most materials without causing sparks, and when the jaws close, they can hold the cut material together, unlike a saw that simply separates the two pieces.
Additionally, the same action that cuts through a piece of metal can also be used to separate crushed materials. The hydraulic clamps simply reverse and spread apart, and this action can be strong enough to lift a damaged car off the ground and gentle enough not to disturb and risk further injury to a person who has sustained a head injury. spinal cord or traumatic head injury.
The “jaws of life” were so called for various reasons. One of the inventors was named Jack Allen Watson, and he signed his initials on the design documents, giving the device its first name. The device often also has two serrated jaws that, in fact, closely resemble a set of jaws from some monstrous animal.
Perhaps the best and most enduring reason the Jaws of Life got their name is due to their basic function. Auto accidents often involve situations where the right tool for the right job could mean the difference between life and death. Hydraulic rescue tools like Jaws of Live could very well rescue people from the jaws of death, and that notion helped cement this important tool with an iconic name and trademark that thousands of people depend on every year.
There is no doubt that if you are involved in a car accident, you have several things on your mind. Should this traumatic situation happen to you, know that help is on the way and there will be Jaws of Life to help save yours.
