[Surprise]

We all love to travel on the highways with our own mode of transportation (cars). It has been discussed enough across the forum on risks involved on highways & joy of exploring the road by wheels.

While you are out on such a highway trip with your friends, where you come across an accident in front of your eyes with a victim struggling for life...You call the ambulance/highway patrol only to be found that they are away at least a couple of hours. What do u do?

[hellstar]

Surprise - this is a situation which i have run into many a times .

Intially i used to get involved , try to get people out of the wreckage etc ... but now after having attended a couple of Authourised trainings on Trauma care and First Aid i think twice. Somtimes its best to let the ambulance crew do ther duty , because more often than not the victims are unstable and moving them itself might cause further damage or even death. Typically this is what i do .

1. Secure my own vehicle , by parking safely with hazard lights on
2. Call for help on phone - 1081, or even 121 if airtel, provide landmarks , location.
3. See extend of damage , if anyone bleeding from ear or nose not to move else move to safer place.
4. Get names / addresses of victims make a call to thier nearest help .
5. Provide water if concious for washing face.
6. if someone in the victims group is ok ask them to secure the valuables like jewellery , of victims
7. Once police arrive , which usualy happens before the ambulance. i leave.

Typically in south indian highways the response time is not more than 20 minutes on the major highways , for the GQ like BLR - Chennai it can be as low as 10 minutes , i have personally had the opputunity to time the reponse time of the emergency services on couple of such occasions where i had made a call myself.


Once i was even witness to an incident where about 300 meters before the accident site the ambulance which was coming fast tried to avoid a guy crossing the road hit the divider and went head on into the pit on the opposite side of the road , in this case the police was already at the accident site and managed to pull out the ambulance driver and move him together with the original accident victims to the hoospital in the second ambulance which came , this is about 3 kms near the BP Petrol pump on your right side with the eatery Adayar Ananda Bhanvan. in 25 minutes time after the first accident all vicitims where cleared form the site and were on the way to the hospital.

[Surprise]

Originally Posted by hellstar

... but now after having attended a couple of Authourised trainings on Trauma care and First Aid i think twice.

Great input on being cautious in handling the victim. Can you share the other important stuff that you learned out of the training?

Originally Posted by hellstar

1. Secure my own vehicle , by parking safely with hazard lights on
2. Call for help on phone - 1081, or even 121 if airtel, provide landmarks , location.
3. See extend of damage , if anyone bleeding from ear or nose not to move else move to safer place.
4. Get names / addresses of victims make a call to thier nearest help .
5. Provide water if concious for washing face.
6. if someone in the victims group is ok ask them to secure the valuables like jewellery , of victims
7. Once police arrive , which usualy happens before the ambulance. i leave.

Thanks for that list. Very useful

[rjstyles69]

surprise been there and done that , my experience is here .I honestly haven't given a 2nd thought about the repercussions when it comes to helping accident victims. Have helped quite a few people in whatever way I can.

You call the ambulance/highway patrol only to be found that they are away at least a couple of hours. What do u do?

Have done this in 2 instances here in Bangalore and was never hassled by the cops or anyone for that matter. In one of the cases, the cop was real friendly and told me that I had done my job as a citizen and that I could go home. He never even asked me for my contact details.

[Surprise]

Originally Posted by rjstyles69

my experience is here .I honestly haven't given a 2nd thought about the repercussions when it comes to helping accident victims. Have helped quite a few people in whatever way I can.

I could recollect your entire episode by just going through the first couple of lines on the link provided. , you did helped the accident victims even though you have your family along with you. Your experiences will definitely give a fair idea on how to approach such situation.

Most of them wanted to help accident victims, but since not many of them have handled the situation, its the initial hesitance that make them to move away with heavy heart. As indicated earlier, reading such experiences will motivate people.

[Sudarshan]

Originally Posted by Surprise

I could recollect your entire episode by just going through the first couple of lines on the link provided. , you did helped the accident victims even though you have your family along with you. Your experiences will definitely give a fair idea on how to approach such situation.

Most of them wanted to help accident victims, but since not many of them have handled the situation, its the initial hesitance that make them to move away with heavy heart. As indicated earlier, reading such experiences will motivate people.

My + 1 to this .

Its a very tricky situation.Years ago I had attended a refresher course , people from a reputed hospitle gave some instructions .some of them I remember are as follows
1) do not try/force to give water to the injured FOR DRINKING , specially the semi consinous state. It will choke his breathing
2) do not try to lift a patient with his hands/legs(most commonly done by common people like us ) as this will add to serious complications . Support the body with your hands delicately . Try to secure on a wooden plank as a make shift strechure
3) If you see blood coming out of mouth try to lay the patient on his side so his throat wont choke by the bleeding .As the liquides will flow out of his mouth.
4) Try to get contact nos/ names of relatives from the victim if possible

I think this is a good thread .We need More expert comments on this by some professionals .

I think people like me ( without medical background) ,have limited scope, so we need some experts here.

Yours Sudarshan

[Surprise]

Originally Posted by Sudarshan

1) do not try/force to give water to the injured FOR DRINKING , specially the semi consinous state. It will choke his breathing

Generally the first thing the crowd do irrespective of victim being conscious or not is to search for water to be splashed on the face followed by forcing the water through the mouth.

This is another great tip.

Originally Posted by Sudarshan

If you see blood coming out of mouth try to lay the patient on his side so his throat wont choke by the bleeding .As the liquides will flow out of his mouth.

This will be useful in any of the accident case. Do u mean to say just turn the head to one side or keep the victim slanted to one side with a support?

[kittigadu]

Accidents

If you can understand the language, This will answer all your questions.

Regards,
Krishna.

[msdivy]

Check recent CNN news item of an incident in China:
Outrage in China after toddler run over, ignored - CNN.com

Can't believe such a thing a happened in a crowded place.

[svsantosh]

Originally Posted by msdivy

Check recent CNN news item of an incident in China:
Outrage in China after toddler run over, ignored - CNN.com

Can't believe such a thing a happened in a crowded place.

I too read this... But frankly how many such instances happen in India where many are left to die while while the public is just a witness? I agree it is a 50-50 share, but why did this china thing become a big news? Just because it had a CCTV on it?

Worst thing close to the china news was when a ASIofPolice was left to bleed (to death) watch by none other a state minister and his looong convoy which included a Ambulance at the end!! PS - even the media crew was busy filming his death while they could have helped!!

Happened around 2 years ago in TN...

[amitoj]

I read another news from China which mentioned that people these days avoid helping the elderly injured because there have been cases where the injured has turned around and sued the helper for damages. Found the link:
In China, Don't Dare Help the Elderly: Adam Minter- Bloomberg