Fair Go: Vehicle escape tools prove worthy despite low price

These nifty little escape tools promise to help cut seatbelts and smash windows in case of an accident, but how effective are they really?

No one ever plans to get trapped in a car, but should the worst happen, there are tools available that can help people get out in one piece.

Vehicle escape tools are designed to cut seatbelts and break windows in an emergency – the question is - how can you be sure they actually work before you really need to know?

That’s been playing on the mind of Toni Rogers-Blacker in Tauranga. She contacted the Fair Go programme for help in finding out what products could be trusted.

“How can we know that they're safe?" she asked.

"The cheap versus expensive? Are they all the same thing?”

She’d been planning to buy a car escape tool and saw the spring-loaded ‘Quick Escape NZ’ tool being advertised on Facebook that looked cheaper than other similar products that ranged from $30 to $50.

"I was like 'well, which?’" Toni said.

"I'd rather spend as least amount of money as possible because hopefully I'm wasting this money and never have to use it!”

Testing them on her car would be an expensive experiment, so Fair Go took up the challenge and found some spare wheels at Curlys Salvage in Pukekohe.

Fair Go tested three different products: a $30 dollar Resqme spring loaded tool; the similar looking $15 'Quick Escape NZ' tool and a $5 emergency hammer from Repco.

All three did the job, successfully cutting a seatbelt clean and smashing a window.

Some took longer than others, but that could have been operator error as it wasn't a scientifically controlled experiment.

But it appears escape tools aren’t all made to same standards, according to creators at least .

The 'Quick Escape NZ Tool' is no longer being sold because Resqme has accused the seller of being a ‘copycat’ and violating the company’s intellectual property.

Resqme president Laurent Colasse says his tool is only made in USA and originally developed for the first responders field. It is also certified and tested by the German TUV Rheinland annually.

“Will it work overtime? My product has been designed to work overtime. Copycat, I wouldn't take the risk,” he told Fair Go.

The creator of the ‘Quick Escape NZ’ tool, Hamish Price, says he wasn't looking for trouble.

“I knew there was the ‘Resqme’ which was obviously the starting out one. But I was more like… ‘What's wrong with having two options, you know? Let's try put something out there that's more affordable so more people could get their hands on it”.

The Palmerston North man has been importing escape tool products from China for the past seven years. He is now in the process of sourcing a different type of escape tool that doesn’t breach Resqme’s patent protections.

New Zealand Police and Fire and Emergency couldn’t tell Fair Go if people are using escape tools in crashes, because they don’t record data on that sort of thing.

But since 2015, NZ police has ordered 2500 escape tools for its staff.

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