So where do you cut into those new cars to avoid exploding air bags?

In car crashes requiring extrication of injured passengers, minutes count.

Rescuing people trapped inside mangled vehicles is a skill most assume firefighters and paramedics already have. But newer cars have features that make it challenging and even dangerous for first-responders without up-to-date knowledge.

One problem is that the vehicles usually available for responders to practice on are often much older than those that could pose a serious challenge in a real accident.

But Cars Collision Center in Schaumburg recently hosted a free training day that provided a rare opportunity to work on late-model cars for firefighters from Arlington Heights, Hanover Park, Schaumburg, Elk Grove Village, Streamwood and Skokie.

While the auto industry prides itself on the improved driver and passenger safety of newer models, some changes have ironically made extrications more perilous:

• Placement of up to 12 air bags and their gas canisters. There's almost no accident that would deploy all 12, leaving the remaining ones as virtual "land mines" for extrication efforts. If they deploy during rescue efforts, that can injure both passengers and rescuers.

• High-voltage cables in hybrid vehicles that can cause instant electrocution if pierced by metal cutting equipment.

•The use of boron steel in the framework of a car, making it impossible to cut with anything but the most expensive equipment available to very few fire departments.

Toby Chess, a Los Angeles extrication expert, was flown out by Des Plaines-based Kent Automotive for the training, while the cars were provided by Farmers Insurance and Enterprise Rent-A-Car.

"They usually can't get the cars to work on without paying big bucks," said Rob Robbins, vice president of sales for Cars Collision Center.

Robbins beamed at the interest and rapt attention all the firefighters showed throughout the demonstration.

Hanover Park firefighter-paramedic Pete Rossberg said the opportunity to actually work on, not just hear about, new car equipment is what made the day worthwhile. Members from each of his department's shifts attended the training to pass on what they learned to colleagues.

Extrications are on average a once-a-year event for his department, he said, but the likelihood that they'll involve a 2000 or later model car is ever increasing.

Chess travels the country performing such training to show firefighters the parts and places to avoid when cutting into a vehicle. Even the use of boron steel can be overcome just by learning what parts of the frame are still made with weaker metal.

Even with the expertise he provides, Chess said the design of today's cars inevitably slows down the extrication process - even though the cars are safer.

Schaumburg firefighter-paramedic Mike Whelan said the old idea was that one was cutting the passenger out of the vehicle. With newer cars, he said, it's more like cutting the vehicle from around the passenger, he said.