Road aware at West Herts

Operational staff at Watford station joined with Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service to create a mock road traffic collision and help raise awareness of the ambulance and fire services roles at the scene of a crash.

The evening began with an introduction to the rescue equipment - with crews surprised that the 'jaws of life' weighed more than 20kg.The participants were shown a slowed down demo from fire officers covering areas such as scene assessment, and what to do if they are first on scene.

They also gave valuable tips about making the vehicle stable and safe, and more importantly, the various hazards faced for all responding services.

The second half of the evening was a real time 'mock' road collision incident involving a car with three 'casualties' inside who were two British Red Cross volunteers and Watford Observer journalist Paola Dellafiora, who played the part of the motorist.

Paramedic Ben Horner, who organised the event, said: "The idea came about as my
crew mate Geoff Swann and I got chatting with firefighters from White Watch on several occasions. We discussed what we could do on the evening and a road traffic scenario soon sprung to mind. "We all agreed that both services would benefit from partnership working and get a better understanding of how both services work together."

Ben added: "The idea was for the crews to formulate a plan and communicate and liase with the fire crews to extract the three casualties from the wreckage. The exercise went very well and both sides learned a great deal."

He also thanked Geoff, David Swain, Lucy Webb, Sam Dominey, Kirsty Hindly and Keir Rutherford for taking part, and to Darren McCatchey and all from White Watch at Watford fire station for hosting the event.