Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 27, 1990 TAG: 9007270182
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: UNION CITY, N.J. LENGTH: Medium
A major chemical spill? No, a minor rear-end auto accident in which one car's air bag deployed.
"Nobody at the scene had a handle on the procedures for the situation and there were a lot of people there with a lot of emergency experience," said Jeff Wells, who heads the ambulance service in neighboring Weehawken.
Federal transportation and consumer officials say that the hysteria was unnecessary and that the incident in this New York City suburb points up the need for rescue workers to learn how to handle accidents involving air bags, standard equipment in about 3 million 1990 cars.
The confusion began when Patricia Sanchez's 1990 Plymouth Sundance hit a car stopped for a red light and her car's air bag deployed.
The nylon bag stored in the hub of the steering wheel inflates in one-20th of a second and deflates through vents in its side within a few more seconds. Packed in cornstarch or talcum for lubrication, the deployed bag gives off a puff of powder and leaves a fine white residue inside the car.
But rescue workers believed the air bag had exploded and spewed sodium hydroxide, a form of lye, on Sanchez.
A quarter-gram of sodium hydroxide, along with a small amount of baking soda, are created as byproducts of the chemical reaction that inflates an air bag in a front-end collision, said Tim Hurd, spokesman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which is investigating the crash.
The amount of lye is minuscule, and it's only a minor irritant, he said. But rescue crews cut away some of Sanchez's clothes, thinking they were contaminated with chemicals. Firefighters cordoned off the intersection, set up a shower in the street and rinsed off anyone who came in contact with the powder.
Emergency workers, fearing more trouble with the bag, cut it out of the car and now can't find it.
"They were frightened of the powder," said Louis Ciavatti, acting city fire chief. "It could have been overplayed."
"There is absolutely no reason to hang back and delay treatment because an air bag has deployed," Hurd said.
The problem is that air bags are still a mystery to many people, said Frank Ghiorsi, regional director for the National Transportation Safety Board, which is also investigating the July 14 crash.
Hurd said Sanchez does not think the air bag malfunctioned. He also said there were no stray bag fragments or other evidence of an explosion.
Twenty-two people were taken to Jersey City Medical Center, and 10 of them were treated as if they had been exposed to sodium hydroxide, said hospital spokeswoman Sheila Paris Klein. Sanchez also was treated for chemical burns and spent two nights in the hospital.
But federal investigators believe Sanchez suffered only friction burns from the inflating air bag.
by CNB