Reduce the risk to first responders and just slow down!

For the first responders, their primary objective is to get injured or hurt individuals to the hospital ASAP, so please slow down when you see an accident!

When an accident occurs the most important objectives are the safety of accident victims, emergency personnel and other road users.

• The first hour after an accident is called the Golden Hour – physicians say seriously injured car crash victims need to reach comprehensive medical care within 60 minutes to ensure a good chance of survival. At the accident scene, this scenario leaves about 12 minutes for rescuers to extricate the wounded and speed them toward the hospital.

• It is priority that the accident scene be secured and pre-warning of traffic takes place. This is undertaken with the patrol vehicles, blue rotating lights, headlamps and hazards etc.

• In some instances more than one pre-warning vehicle will be required with the officers kitted in their reflective jackets and the red flags used for motorist’s immediate attention. Sign trailers must be erected with the appropriate message displayed distance from the collision so that motorists adjust and reduce speeds timorously.

• Incident Management System is the process to efficiently manage road accidents and to restore traffic flow to normal as quickly as possible. IMS is also used to establish an agreed set of formalised alternative routes to use in the event of a road closure.

• In the event of heavy motor vehicles having been stacked, and a route diversion initiated for light vehicles, restoration to the flow of heavy motor vehicles will be given propriety when lanes become available.

• We need to prevent material evidence from being removed or relocated in any way. This is especially true if the accident is a fatal injury that might trigger an accident investigation.
  Learning from past accidents can prevent accidents from happening again.

• Persons having direct authority must preserve and mark for identification, materials, tools or equipment necessary to the proper investigation of an accident, so it’s important that material evidence does not “walk off” the scene.

• Sensitive, competent handling of victims in the immediate aftermath of the accident can have a tremendous impact on both the victim’s subsequent psychological recovery and on law enforcement efforts to solve the case.

Source: Arrive Alive