First Sixty Seconds at a Crash Scene
At 06:30 you are driving to work on a dual carriageway with light traffic. Rounding a gentle left bend you come upon a crash: a saloon has hit the barrier and is resting at about 45 degrees, its rear half in the right-hand lane, hazard lights dead. The driver is slumped over the wheel and does not respond to your horn. A passenger is standing in the live right-hand lane waving at oncoming traffic. Traffic behind you is approaching at 100 km/h with headlights on. You have a warning triangle, a reflective vest, a first-aid kit and a phone at 60 percent battery. There is a hard shoulder 3 metres wide and a grass verge beyond it.
1. Give your first four actions in order, with the reason for each.
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- Slow down, switch on hazard lights and stop on the hard shoulder or verge past the wreck, not in a lane. Your car with lights on becomes a physical shield and a second warning device; stopping in the lane makes you part of the incident.
- Put on the reflective vest before opening the door. At 06:30 in moving traffic, a dark figure stepping out is the next casualty.
- Move the waving passenger off the carriageway to the verge behind the barrier, upslope of the wreck. A person standing in the right lane at 100 km/h is the most immediate danger on the scene.
- Call the emergency number - FRSC 122 - and give location and direction while someone else sets the triangle. Getting the response moving early matters more than any single later action.
Only after those four do you approach the driver.
2. Where do you place the triangle and where do you move the passenger? Why is 'directly behind the car' wrong?
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Triangle: upstream of the wreck on the same side, far enough back that a driver at 100 km/h can see it, read it and choose a new lane - commonly taught as around 45 metres, and further on a fast road or where the bend hides the scene. Because the wreck is around a curve, place it before the bend if you can do so safely, so the first thing a driver sees is the warning rather than the car.
Passenger: behind the barrier on the verge, upslope of the wreck, well clear of the lane and of the barrier itself in case of a second impact.
Directly behind the car is wrong for two reasons: at 100 km/h a driver covers 45 metres in about 1.6 seconds, so a triangle sitting at the boot gives no usable warning; and the person placing it would be standing in a live lane beside the wreck while traffic arrived. Warning distance, not proximity, is the point.
3. What do you do for the slumped driver, and what do you say on the emergency call?
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Do not move the driver unless there is fire or an immediate risk of another impact - moving a possibly spinal-injured casualty can make the injury permanent. From outside the car, check responsiveness and breathing, keep the head still and supported, keep the casualty warm, and do not give food or drink. Keep talking to them. If the vehicle is in a live lane and traffic is arriving fast, the priority shifts: get the lane warned and if necessary move the casualty the minimum distance to safety.
On the call, give:
- the road by name and your direction of travel, so responders approach from the right side;
- the nearest landmark or kilometre marker;
- number of vehicles and casualties, and whether anyone is trapped, unconscious or bleeding;
- hazards: fuel spill, live lane, darkness, no working hazard lights;
- your phone number, and stay on the line until told to hang up.