A Hurst tool is the original jaws of life, developed by the same company as the famous Hurst shifter. It was invented when one of their race drivers died in a wreck, trapped in the wreckage, taking his last breath while still trapped. Hand tools only back then. The Hurst company was upset enough that they took matters in to their own hands, and they saved a lot of lives as a result. Today across the world, there are a few good "jaws of life" hydraulic rescue tools, but the Hurst is the original.
I worked in Fire/EMS for over a decade. One day at an interstate crash, we had a driver pinned in his car. The frame and floor creased and crumpled, folding inward in a way that brought the seat in to the dashboard, compressing the driver tightly in to the dash. He was unconcious, critically injured, blue from a lack of oxygen even though he was sort of still able to breathe.
Normally a socket wrench on the seat bolts would be an option, but the sheet metal of the floor folded in a way that prevented a socket from getting to the rear seat bolts, the fronts would be no problem. We needed him out, and quickly, before we lost him. Those bolts were the fastest way...
We didn't appear to have anything in our tool kits that would get a good bite and shear the bolts off, not safely anyway, and in a moment of desperate thought I pulled my knife out of my pocket and opened up the screw driver/bottle opener. The Hurst was already deployed, as we had cut the roof off and removed the driver's door with it, so it was right there. I placed the curved end of the bottle opener against the first seat bolt, for a grip/bite, and there was enough length of the knife so that the jaws would be able to reach it, and so I carefully directed the Hurst crew to put the jaws against my knife on one side, and the crumpled floor on the other, and slowly open them up a little. They did so, and immediately the plastic handles broke off, the whole knife twisted in my grip, but it held and with a loud snap it sheared off the first seat bolt. Success! Then slowly, we did the rest of them, shearing each of them off (4 in total) while others were clicking away at the front seat bolts with the socket wrench.
In about 2 minutes, it turned from a scene we all thought was going to be a tragedy in to one of triumph. A few minutes later, the cyanosis (blue) coloration was gone. The man remained unconcious during the ride to the hospital.
A few days later, after dropping off another patient, I stopped by to see him, introduce myself, and fill in some blanks for him. I made sure he heard this tale, and I gave him the remains of the knife that saved him, twisted, broken, the screwdriver/bottle opener forever locked open. Some of his family was in the room with him, and they heard the tale as well. Great pocket knives, but no match against 32,000 psi at the tips of those jaws. I had already gone out and replaced my knife with a new one.
Then years later, and I mean about 15 or 20, I finally got around to getting this testimonial to Victorinox. Everyone had been telling me for years I should do so. Apparently they liked it too. They sent me a nice letter, and a Champ, also with the SOS kit. It goes along in my pack when I hunt, or out on all day woods hikes, but I don't routinely carry it.
