Car accidents happen way too often that most people don’t know how common they are. There is a big chance that you may come across at least one accident on the road in your lifetime. When that happens, you need to be prepared and you need to know how you can offer assistance to the victims. Your involvement can be the reason for at least one injured person to survive a serious accident. If this is new to you or if you have never come across a road accident before, we’re here to help.
Here, we guide you on how to react and what to do when passing by a car accident and seeing injured victims.
Call Emergency Services
After securing the accident scene and making sure that you can approach the victims safely, the first thing you need to do is to call 911 or any emergency services in your region that can help with the situation. Calling emergency services needs to be done as soon as possible and important information like the location and the number of injured victims need to be provided to the operators in a quick manner so that they can send the nearest responders to the accident scene. You need to remember to stay calm and provide the operator with the most important information at the beginning of the call. Mention as many details about the accident scene as you can including any landmarks around you or any traffic blockage that can slow down the emergency services on their way to you.
Talk to The Victim or Victims
This is a very important step that needs to be done before even assisting any of the victims. Before you start with any first aid steps, start by asking the victim if they need any assistance. No matter how much an injured person might seem like they need assistance, if you go against their wishes, they might put you under legal liability. It’s important to ask them about their needs first then proceed with helping them contact their personal attorneys or reach their families, depending on their situation. In Arizona, personal injury attorneys can handle a wide range of accident cases as per the lawyers from https://www.brownhobkirk.com/, specialized law firms there can handle car accidents, motorcycle crashes, dog bites, and other serious accidents. By talking to the victim of the accident, you will be able to help them reach support and manage to identify their injuries in order to act accordingly.
Do Not Move The Victim
As a bystander, you can’t see the depth of a victim’s injuries, many injuries will not be visible on the skin, except for burns or bruises. This is why you need to avoid moving an injured victim even if you don’t see any visible injuries after a car crash. The only reason you should be moving a car accident’s victim is in the case of finding them in potential danger such as next to a car that’s about to explode. Otherwise, you should leave the victim in the same position until the emergency services arrive.
Provide First Aid
Before providing the injured victim with any aid, stay on the phone with the emergency service’s operator to tell you how to deal with a life-threatening situation, and walk you through the steps to perform first aid. In most cases, waiting for the emergency services will be the best option, it will be better for the victim to receive professional medical help. The best thing to do is to talk to the victim if they are conscious to calm them down and keep them as still as possible. You will only need to perform first aid if the victim’s life is in danger and they might not survive until the emergency services arrive. To treat bleeding, apply pressure on the injury using a clean piece of cloth to protect the wound. For broken bones, the best thing to do would be to secure the injured limb or area with soft cloths to keep it still until medical assistance is available.
Dealing with a car accident is not easy, neither for the victims involved in the accident nor for the people who witness it. It’s definitely a traumatic experience for those involved in it but it’s also a challenging situation for people who try to help. You have to make sure that the victims are okay with you providing assistance first then you need to perform your first aid steps cautiously in fear of causing any further injuries. You will also be responsible for contacting emergency services and staying with the victim until professional help is available. The good thing is that you could be the reason somebody survives a serious accident that they might have not survived on their own if you were not there.