More than 75 first responders from more than a dozen rescue units across five states gathered at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) facility in Ruckersville, Va., on Wednesday for a hands-on course in cutting victims out of late-model vehicles, part of the National Auto Body Council First Responder Emergency Extrication (F.R.E.E.) program.
The crews, drawn from Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina and Maryland, practiced techniques for the high-strength steel, multiple airbags and high-voltage powertrains that increasingly define the cars arriving at crash scenes. Insurance carriers donated 24 vehicles for the training, and Hurst Jaws of Life supplied
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