Oftentimes bystanders at an accident scene may be quick to offer help to the victims, but sometimes this can cause more harm than good. It is for this reason why the Jamaica National Foundation has embarked on a mission to train volunteers along crash hot spots in how to deal with accident victims.

With many road fatalities occurring along the St Ann’s Bay to Trelawny corridor annually, the Jamaica National Foundation in partnership with the Jamaica Automobile Association (JAA), the FIA Action for Road Safety, St John Ambulance, the Jamaica Constabulary Force and Jamaica Fire Brigade, launched a ‘Community First Responders’ Project’ in St Ann, earlier this month. The project, which will see residents along the corridor responding to accidents, was launched at Cardiff Hall Hotel in Runaway Bay.

“One of the biggest problems that we have when there are road crashes is how people are handled. People panic; they throw them in a car. They paralyse them during transportation. They are not able to stop the bleeding and the haemorrhaging,” explained General Manager at JN Foundation Saffrey Brown.

The project, she said, is in response to the high numbers of road fatalities in Jamaica yearly.

“JN Foundation and the JAA sought to develop an intervention that could reduce the effects of road crashes in terms of trying to reduce the number of fatalities that come as a result of road crashes,” Brown said.

She explained that while there were a number of interventions to reduce road crashes, the JN Foundation and its partners wanted to ensure that if there is a crash, persons are prepared to deal with it so as to reduce the impact and increase the victim’s chance of survival.

The ‘First Responders Project’ will train volunteers who live in hot spot corridors to be able to respond to crashes in or close to their communities and to be able to stabilise crash sites and victims until emergency response arrives.

“Our hope is to reduce the extreme effects of road crashes, that we have fewer fatalities resulting from road crashes because persons are handled in a safer way,” Brown said.

She said the St Ann’s Bay to Discovery Bay corridor was chosen because of the high numbers of crashes which occur there.

Speaking at the recent launch, Superintendent of Police Dudley Scott said there were 42 road fatalities in St Ann in 2015.

“Oftentimes the police arrive on a scene first and definitely we need the responders to assist because too often we hear that persons, on arrival at the hospital, are pronounced dead,” he said, noting that it was important to have partnerships like this in order to save lives.”

He said the statistics for Area Two and particularly St Ann are an indication of the need for the project in the parish. According to Supt Scott in 2015, there were 39 fatal accidents in St Ann which resulted in 42 fatalities in the parish.

There were 12 fatalities in St Mary and seven in Portland, with a total of 61 deaths from 57 fatal collisions across the three parishes.

Brown said the JN Foundation will also be partnering with St John Ambulance to have the project rolled out in Westmoreland where there are a number of road fatalities, particularly of motor cyclists.

“We are looking to intervene in communities that have a lot of motorbikes, motorcyclist drivers. We are hoping to get motorbikers themselves to become EMTs so they can respond,” she stated. Brown said the JN Foundation is also looking for new volunteers so persons interested can contact St John Ambulance for training.

In the meantime, Allison Christie Binger, executive director of St John Ambulance said an ambulance, has been dedicated specifically for the project. The ambulance which was among six donated to the organisation by the Japanese Government, is specially retrofitted to deal with accident victims. The unit is also equipped with tools which can be used on a crash site to aid in the freeing of crash victims.

“St John is playing an instrumental role in this pilot project,” she said, pointing out that St John is not only providing training to the first responders, but will provide any additional training that is needed over time.

One of the first responders, June Sutherland-Boucher, a retired nurse from the United Kingdom, said she was happy to be a part of the project. Sutherland-Boucher said she often raise the questions about first responders when she hears of accident victims being pronounced dead when they arrive at the hospital.

“Over and over we hear pronounced dead on arrival to hospital,” she said, noting that first responders could save lives. The training definitely benefitted us…it has given us a good insight of what to expect on the battlefield.”

There is expected to be an expansion of the project island wide.