Emergency response teams simulate accident

Statistics reveal that road traffic accidents are among the leading cause of death in Belize… one means of reducing causalities is for drivers to behave more responsibly on the road, but another can be found in the response of the relevant personnel to the mishaps. Today some of those first responders staged an event designed to tweak their skills. Marion Ali reports.

Marion Ali, Reporting
The scene the intersection of Princess Margaret Drive just before midday today seemed deadly as personnel from the Belize Emergency Response Team, Police, Fire, Traffic and the B.D.F. worked to get things back to normal. From the looks of things, a collision between a pick-up truck and a station wagon had left a mass casualty situation, but fortunately it was not a traffic mishap but a simulation carefully staged by BERT as a means of evaluating the performance of the relevant teams. Emergency Medical Technicians, Carla Flowers and Shanice Bruce were first on the scene.

Carla Flowers, Emergency Medical Technician
“Whenever they’re doing a scene simulation we always come here ands see if it’s a real thing and if it’s not we still have to go ahead and do what we know best.”

Marion Ali
“So when you came out here and you saw this is not for real, do you at any point become lax or complacent? Do you give up or do you lose interest at any point in carrying out your duties?”

Carla Flowers
“No we should not do that. When we come out we look for power lines, for fire, for gas, how many patients, what the conditions are, etcetera.”

Shanice Bruce, Emergency Medical Technician
“Every call we get it’s an emergency until further notice, until we reach the scene, evaluate and assess the patient then we can say whether we can stay and play, load and go with ht patient.”

Marion Ali
“So you must always be ready.”

Shanice Bruce
“Always be ready, twenty-four seven.”

But while the efficiency was good in some areas, B.E.R.T.’s National Coordinator, Yvette Burkes, also picked up on some faults.

Yvette Burkes, Nat’l Coordinator, B.E.R.T.
“We look at calmness, we look at response time, we look at the usage of everything from the equipment and supplies that they have to surrounding people. Are they following procedure because there are procedures for a reason? We have our basic policy and procedures in the workplace but we also have our medical protocols.”

Marion Ali
“When your staff come out here and realize this is not for real, do you observe that maybe they get a little bit lax?”

Yvette Burkes
“Yes, I have to admit yes. Sometimes you do see a bit of complacency set in because it’s not necessarily a real thing and in fact, a few years ago fire was doing monthly simulations and we fought that because we had to remind them you’re practicing for the real thing. Don’t take it lightly. What I saw was pretty decent reaction, maybe because we initiated this simulation. They didn’t seem to be quite as careless but I observed a few things that I think would have been done differently if we were in a real situation.”

The police also play a major part in emergency situations.

Sgt. Raymond Berry, O.C., Traffic
“Our role out there is to block the traffic so that vehicles and people cannot interfere in the traffic scene and to give space to the medics and the police officers who are doing the scene, to work in a more better environment.”

Marion Ali
“Do you treat the situation with the same level of seriousness as would you a real life situation?”

Sgt. Raymond Berry
“Yes we do because in a real life situation that is the same steps that we do.”

The exercise was aimed at enhancing the performance of emergency teams in real life situations, but Burke says they will always face serious challenges.

Yvette Burks
“The truth is, God forbid, a plane goes down we’d be in big trouble. But we will do the best we can do and that is the important thing.”

Reporting for News Five, Marion Ali.

The exercise caused traffic block at the intersection for less than an hour.