Danger of electricution. Fact or Urban Myth

myth. you would have to crush the battery back which sits on top of the rear axle. in such an emergency, they have a GFI (ground fault interupting) braker on the battery pack that clips it out of service.

 

https://techinfo.toyota.com/techInfoPortal/staticcontent/en/techinfo/html/prelogin/docs/2ndprius.pdf
is the Emergency Response Guide, it is quite straight forward.

I bound one and gave it to my local firemen.

 

Without getting into the exact science of the Pruis HV battery & the possibilities that could be detrimental to First Responders, Toyota DOES provide a booklet called "Prius Emergency Response Guide". It is available at any Toyota dealership, Part Number: 00400-ERG02-0U. This manual explains ALL of the systems that first responders can encounter, and how to deal with them. It may not be important to the responders what the "actual" voltage of the HV (high voltage) battery (307 VDC), but how to AVOID getting shocked or electrocuted if they cut into the wrong area.
Fortunatly, Toyota takes great pains to IDENTIFY all of the HV wires, they are all BRIGHT ORANGE. Toyota also provides a big removable plug/master disconnect at the driver side of the battery connection that will remove all of the HV battery voltage from said orange wires.
Pull this plug, the HV battery voltage is eliminated from the wiring harness.
THIS is the MOST IMPORTANT THING that a First Responder needs to know:
Pull the master disconnect.

High Voltage Wiring is harnessed in Orange conduit. It's can't be missed unless of course one is color blind. In the event of a rollover accident it is my understanding should some roof pillars need to be cut, there is no HV wiring in that area. There are also some built in safety features to disconnect power if operable.

A good question but I don't think the levity of the question is to a point of any different with a severe Rear Impact, and a gas tank eruption with hard enough impact....

I have not heard of any situations where anyone was electrocuted

 

The car I believe has been around since 97? To my knowledge that has never happened

 

I've got a little sub-page that links to several of the different
ERGs, as they're called. Look here, and point your local
officials at it too. All the hybrid makers are careful to have
this sort of info out there, free to the public.
.
_H*

 

It looks like all those links point to Gen 2 ERG's. I could see where a link for the Gen 3 document might be more helpful in a 2010 forum.

 

Yes, if Toyota had released a 2010 document yet, I certainly would have linked to it instead.

 

I have only one comment re the above postings. Bobsprius, it's a 207 volt battery, not a 307.

A few points:

1. If the power is off (turned off by the driver etc - press the "power" button for 3 sec and it will go off) there is -no connection- to the HV battery. The connection is broken -inside- the steel battery case. Both leads to the battery are disconnected.

2. As posted above, there is ground fault protection on -both- battery leads. If either is connected to the chassis both are immediately disconnected.

3. Yes, if you tried hard enough you probably -could- get across the HV battery, but your chances of being electrocuted by a duplex outlet in your house are at least 1000 times greater. Why?
a ) In the house you can actually touch a plug prong as you pull it out or put it in. You can't with a Prius (there are no plugs you can access and the connectors that -are- used are much higher quality than household plugs in that you can't get a finger or most tools to touch the conductors).
b ) If you somehow did manage to connect to either side of the HV battery cable there is a very great chance you would be connecting it to the chassis, which would immediately trip the ground fault breaker.

 

David,
Thanks for the correction I appreciate it...

 

Hi Greysquirre34. I live very near you and would be glad to discuss and share my Prius with you . We love ours!
Charlie Snead
134 Larchmont Drive.
:welcome:

 

Welcome greysquirre,
Your question is like many old myths about the Prius. Besides the electrocuting battery ... you'll eventually hear about the "sudburry" nickel mine that has polluted the entire landscape. The myth goes on to say it's the fault of the Prius. There's also this crackpot "Art Spinella ... who has 'secret' proof that the Hummer is actually more economical than a Prius. Often it's the detractors of the Prius that continue to promulgate the stories. There's even one poor gear head slob (on youtube) that take a Prius out to the desert to blow it apart with a machine gun.

.

 

i think there is a risk.

when you car is really crushed badly ( in that case i dont think there is any life left in the poeple inside the car ) the metal of the cars can aline with the + and - terminals on the HV battery cells and short them..( even with the main fuse blow there is stilll ~7,2 volt on the cells ) when you have a metal piece that pushes agains the + and - of all the cells.

but then again it will blow the battery or lose its energy because of this shortcut and in time there will be no voltage available to kill anyone.
beside maybe the people that are inside the car and touching metal parts because ty are crushed agains those parts.

but with the more then 1.000.000 toyota hybrids on the market ( not counting the others ) there have not been any reports yet so i geuss its save to say there is not real risk.

maybe with PHEV and BEV there is a bigger risk......

 

Toyota still has no Gen III document, but this is out.
New Vehicle Extrication: 2010 Toyota Prius - Fire Engineering

 

Toyota has a 2010 Emergency Response Guide on the TIS web site
at techinfo.toyota.com.

 

Thanks for the update/correction, when I last looked it was not there.

https://techinfo.toyota.com/techInfoPortal/staticcontent/en/techinfo/html/prelogin/docs/3rdprius.pdf

 

Greysquirrel34,

I consider the electroshock a very handy feature. When I want to catch fish, but am too lazy to go screw around on the water, I just -e-a-s-e- the car backwards down any boat launching ramp until the terminals are barely submerged. You can tell when you're deep enough because the water will start to boil and make sharp snapping and popping noises, and fish will jump clean out of the water.

When this happens you put it in forwards and go back up the ramp, park the car and then go around with a landing net and scoop up all the fish you can eat. It's not sporting, but it works great!










(What's that you say? The Mods are not amused? OK, just funnin' here, it doesn't really work that way, and if you overdo it the car starts to float off into the lake, and just so you should know, the bank will *still* want all their payments in full and on time, the b*st*rds)

:banplease: