" when they need to cut a strap on a stokes, they waste time finding it."

Never had to do such a thing. We always preferred to untie our knots, so the strap could be used later.

But this begs a question. We all know that any "rescue" implement includes a seat belt cutter, so that the victim can be extricated from his hopelessly jammed seat belt. Most of my SARs were non-vehicular, so I have little experience with seat belt extrication. From those who have done such, just how common is a jammed seat belt and the need to slash quickly?

I suspect that the seat belt cutter is "SAR bling," more or less.