02:40 on the E6: a car on its side and a still figure on the verge
It is 02:40 in February, about -6 °C, on an unlit two-lane stretch of the E6 with an 80 km/h limit. You are driving a 40-tonne combination loaded with 22 tonnes of steel coils, strapped and wedged. Ahead, a car has left the road, hit the rock face and come to rest on its side with its boot in the right-hand lane facing back towards you; broken glass is spread across the lane. One person is lying on the verge beside the car and does not move. Another is standing at the edge of the road waving at you. Traffic behind you is passing at speed into the opposite lane. Your phone shows one bar of signal. In the cab you have a warning triangle, a high-visibility vest and a first-aid kit. You have driven 8h20 of your 9-hour day and you are 190 km short of your overnight stop.
1. Set out your actions for the first three minutes, in order, with the reason for each step.
Read the worked answer
- Stop before the wreck, not beside it. Your 40-tonne combination is the best barrier between the scene and the traffic, but parking in the lane creates a second collision. Pull as far right as the road allows before the car, hazard lights on, dipped headlights on, parking brake on. Do not drive past and leave the scene unprotected behind you.
- Vest on before the door opens. Then the warning triangle, 100 to 150 m back. At 80 km/h traffic covers about 22 m every second, so that gives roughly five to seven seconds of warning. Never cross a lane to place it.
- One call to 113. Give the kilometre marker, the number of casualties, whether anyone is trapped, whether there is fire, and your phone number. Ask them to alert police and fire; the dispatcher will do it.
- Do not move the casualty. Check response and breathing where they lie, on the verge, away from the lane.
- Keep the standing person off the carriageway and useful, for example fetching the first-aid kit, rather than letting them wander in the road.
2. The person on the verge is unresponsive and not breathing normally. What first aid do you give, including in the cold and with a possible spinal injury?
Read the worked answer
Unresponsive and not breathing normally means cardiac arrest. Occasional gasps are not normal breathing and do not change the decision.
Do this
- Start chest compressions at once: centre of the chest, 5 to 6 cm deep, 100 to 120 per minute, full recoil between compressions.
- 30 compressions to 2 rescue breaths if you are trained and willing; otherwise compression only, which is far better than nothing.
- Send the standing person for an AED if one is reachable, and turn it on the moment it arrives. Follow its voice prompts.
- Do not delay compressions to examine the spine. Do not move the head to check for injury unless the airway is blocked, in which case use a jaw thrust rather than tilting the head.
- Protect against the cold with a foil blanket, coats or cab curtains, but never stop compressions to do it. Cold protects the brain; hypothermia is not a reason to stop.
- Swap with another rescuer every two minutes if you can, and tell the ambulance crew when you started and what you did.
3. The ambulance has gone. It is 03:40, you have driven 8h20 and you are shaking. What do you do about the rest of the shift?
Read the worked answer
You do not drive on. You are at 8h20 of your 9 hours, and the remaining 190 km is roughly 2h20 of driving, which puts you over the daily limit. More importantly, you are cold, acutely stressed and have been awake for many hours. That is a fitness-to-drive problem, not a schedule problem.
What to do
- Get the combination off the carriageway to a rest area or a place the police direct you to, not the hard shoulder.
- Ring the operator now and have them re-plan the delivery and the reload.
- Write your own note of times, positions and actions while it is fresh, for the police statement and the accident report.
- Take a full daily rest of 11 hours, or a reduced 9 hours if you still have reductions available this week, and start no earlier than the end of that rest.
- Ask the police whether you are required to stay for a statement before you move.
A missed slot is recoverable. Driving 190 km on a stress reaction at 04:00 in February is not.