It can be tempting to try helping at the scene of an accident, but it’s important to make sure that you don’t get in the way of emergency responders. If you are the first one on the scene or are the only person around, try to help if you can. If there are other people already helping, call 911 and then move out of the way. Ensure your safety first and try to route traffic around the accident. Call for help as soon as you can. Assess the victims and perform any safety measures that the responders tell you to perform. Finally, stay with them until medical help arrives and try to calm any children and pets at the scene. Hopefully, you won’t come across any serious injuries, but it’s important to know some basic safety training to help in an emergency.

Helping at the Scene of an Accident: Being Helpful but Staying Out of the Way

Ensure Your Safety

The first thing to do when helping at the scene of an accident is to ensure your safety. You don’t want to get hurt and present even more work for the emergency responders. Be careful approaching the accident if a fire or fuel is leaking on the road. If you have any, put out safety cones around the accident to prevent further crashes, and help direct traffic around the site.

Call For Help

Helping at the scene of an accident is a very kind thing to do, but unless you’re a trained EMT, you’ll probably need backup. As you approach the accident, dial 911. Give the operator an overview of the accident, any serious injuries, and your location. If there are life-threatening injuries, the operator can help walk you through helping.

Assess the Victims

It’s important to access all the victims when helping at the scene of an accident. Attend to the quietest victims first. Anybody yelling and screaming has air in their lungs. Make sure that anybody who is quiet is conscious and responsive. If they are not breathing, an emergency operator can walk them through CPR on the phone. Once you know that everybody is breathing and responsive, do not try to move anybody unless they are in imminent danger. There could be spinal injuries that can be made worse by movement.

Stay with Them

Finally, when helping at the scene of an accident, the most important thing is to try to keep everybody calm. Stay with them until help arrives. The police might want to talk to you to get a report of the accident. Try to help victims breathe deeply to calm themselves down. If there are children at the scene, try to keep them calm and distracted while they wait. If there are pets, secure them as well as you can. Frightened animals can pose a risk to other passengers in a vehicle.

Helping at the scene of an accident can be scary, but it might be life-saving. Hopefully, you’ll never encounter a serious accident with life-threatening injuries. However, if you do, you’ll be more prepared if you follow the above tips. Make sure that approaching the scene is safe to do so that you do not get hurt as well. Call 911 as soon as possible to get professional medical help en route. Assess the victims to make sure that everybody is responsive and that there are no life-threatening injuries. If there are, a 911 operator can help walk you through life-saving techniques. Finally, stay with the victims until help arrives and try to keep everybody as calm as possible. Just make sure that you do not get in the way of the emergency responders. Hopefully, everybody will walk away from the scene without injuries.