The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) and partners have trained 100 Road Traffic Crash First Responders in Lagos State to safe more lives on the road.
The FRSC Corps Commander in Lagos State, Mr Olusegun Ogunbemide, said this during the Emergency Response and Casualty Handling Training organised for Road Traffic Crashes First Responders.
The event was in Commemoration of 2020 World First Aid Day with the theme, “First Aid Saves Lives” held in Lagos on Saturday.
Ogungbemide said that the FRSC conducted the training in collaboration with Truma Care International Foundation (TCTF) and Health Emergency Initiative (HEI), both NGOs.
The FRSC boss said that First Aid had become essential integral part of post-crash response strategy in road safety management.
According to him, FRSC has been implementing the intervention strategy with continuous capacity enhancements for the officers and marshals.
Ogunbemide said that First Aid was a fundamental skill that could provide effective and rapid intervention to help reduce injury and suffering and improve the chances of survival of someone in need.
“Millions of people are hurt or killed from injuries at home, work and on road every year because adequate and timely assistance is not provided.
“The narrative can change, the statistics could be significantly reduced,” the corps commander said.
He noted that road traffic crashes had been acknowledged as a major health and development concern.
“Every year the lives of approximately 1.35 million people are cut short as a result of road traffic crashes.
“Also, between 20 and 50 million more people suffer non fatal injuries, with many incurring a disability as a result of their injuries.
“Sizeable part of these fatalities and injuries could be mitigated with adequate and timely medical attention,”Ogunbemide said.
He said that the World First Aid Day was an annual opportunity to highlight the importance of first aid around the globe as an act of humanitarian empowerment and to elevate public awareness of how first aid could safe lives in everyday and crisis situations.
Dr Ena Oshinowo, Senior Manager, Truma Care International Foundation (TCTF), an NGO, said the Foundation had collaborated with FRSC to train 100 first responders during the ember months.
Oshinowo said that the foundation’s campaign, tagged “Operation Mobile Human Ambulance” was aimed at providing basic Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and First Aid skills to vulcanizers, commercial drivers, filling station attendants and critical bystanders on major highways and accidents prone routes.
She said that the scheme also targeted at upskilling personnel of FRSC as well as Special Marshals on CPR, First Aid and crowd control.
Oshinowo said that Trauma Care International and Health Emergency Initiative (HEI) had trained 159 first responders and other critical stakeholders on CPR, first aid and crowd control.
“The use of the road before ember period is the same in the ember period but we engage volunteers and train them to reduce numbers of mortality and morbidity on the streets because we find out that first aid can actually safe lives.
“First responders do not need to wait for doctors like myself before they can safe lives, in case of someone in an accident who looses blood and stop breathing.
“Someone who stop breathing could be revived through Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation with the support of first responders who can jumpstart the heart to bring the person back to live,”Oshinowo said.
The Executive Director, Health Emergency Initiative (HEI), Mr Paschal Achunine, said that it was partnering with TCTF and FRSC to train first responders since government could not do it alone.
He said that the training was to ensure that the critical people were trained to help revive victims to consciousness before being taken to the hospital.
Achunine, however, said that the training was to enable people in Lagos help accidents victims to be connected with first crash responders to safe lives.
A member of Nigeria Automobile Association (NATA), Mr Nurudeen Shonibare, said the training would go a long way in helping victims in the course of their work.
He said that they had learned more on how to assist accident victims, adding that with the training they would start helping more victims to safe their lives.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that some of the trained First Aid Responders pleaded with the FRSC to provide them with identity cards for security and proper identification during rescue operations. (NAN)
