The ‘Skills for Safer Journeys’ course could dramatically improve road safety, according to David Higginbottom, CEO of Driver First Assist, citing fact that deaths from RTCs often occur within four minutes, whereas the target time for an ambulance to arrive (if the call is life-threatening) is eight minutes.
The new online training course – Skills for Safer Journeys – designed to support employers in meeting their health and safety obligations to the millions of public and private sector employees who drive for work, has been launched by road safety training organisation Driver First Assist in the UK.
Research has shown that more deaths occur from at-work road travel than in the workplace itself, and Driver First Assist believes that its new initiative will help drivers to be safer on the road by equipping them with the crucial skills to support at the scene of an on-road incident, regardless of the type of vehicle they drive.
The 90-minute online course – which can be completed in stages – teaches how to make critical decisions using the principals of dynamic risk assessment, safely park at the scene of an incident, gather crucial information for the emergency services, make the perfect 999 call, and provide first-aid assistance prior to the arrival of paramedics.
Driver First Assist CEO David Higginbottom, says: “Last year there were 1,633 fatalities from road collisions in Great Britain – the equivalent of more than three ‘superjumbos’ falling out of the sky. In too many cases, the victims didn’t die because of the collision; they died as the first people on scene didn’t know what to do. Health and safety law does not end at the factory or warehouse gate; when someone drives for work the roads become an extension of the workplace, even if they are driving a personal vehicle for business purposes.”
Supporting the launch of the online course, Sir Keith Porter, Emeritus Professor of Traumatology at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, explains: “We know many patients die at the scene of road traffic collisions because of a failure to open an airway, or to arrest external haemorrhage. The Driver First Assist course will empower drivers to deliver life-saving skills, helping to keep a patient alive in those valuable minutes before the ambulance arrives. This course also gives drivers the confidence to ensure they fully appreciate the importance of scene safety and good communication with the emergency services. The more first responders we have, the better. Could that be you?”
For further details on ‘Skills for Safer Journeys’ by Driver First Assist visit dfa-online.co.uk
