The Lone Officer and the Injured Worker
You are the only security officer on site at a warehouse during a night shift (22:00-06:00). At 02:40 you hear a shout from the loading bay and find a forklift operator trapped against a rack, conscious but bleeding from a leg wound and unable to move. The forklift is still running and the bay is poorly lit. Your site radio reaches only the control room, which is unstaffed until 05:00. Your mobile phone has one bar of signal. The site first-aid kit is in the guardhouse 200 metres away. The site emergency procedure lists a plant manager's number and the national emergency number. You have basic first-aid training but no advanced medical training.
1. Set out your priorities in order and justify the sequence.
Read the worked answer
The sequence follows the principle of not creating a second casualty and getting the right help moving as early as possible.
- Make the scene safe first. The forklift is running and the bay is dark. Isolate or switch off the machine if you can do so without endangering yourself, and get light on the scene. A rescuer injured by a moving machine helps no one.
- Raise the alarm early, not last. With one bar of signal, call the national emergency number and/or the plant manager immediately - do not wait until after you have treated the casualty. Help takes time to arrive; start that clock now. If the call fails, keep trying between other actions.
- Do not move the casualty unless there is immediate danger (e.g., the machine is still a threat). Suspected crush/leg injury means movement can worsen harm.
- Provide basic first aid within your training - control bleeding with pressure, keep the casualty still and warm, talk to them.
- Send for the kit / guide responders in as soon as another person is available.
- Record times and actions.
A model answer names the ordering principle (scene safety → alarm → care → record) rather than listing actions in random order.
2. The plant manager's phone rings out and the emergency call drops. What do you do next, and what mistake must you avoid?
Read the worked answer
Keep the alarm process alive through every available channel rather than freezing on one failed call.
- Retry the emergency number and the plant manager; move to where signal is better if that can be done without leaving the casualty unattended or unsafe.
- If a second person arrives (e.g., another worker drawn by the noise), send them to call and to fetch the first-aid kit while you stay with the casualty.
- Consider activating any on-site alarm or audible device that would alert others, if the procedure provides for it.
The mistake to avoid is leaving the casualty alone to go and make the call yourself when an alternative exists, and equally treating the failed call as 'no help available' and stopping escalation. The officer's job is to keep trying channels and to use bystanders, not to become the sole responder and abandon the alarm.
3. After the casualty is handed to paramedics, what must your report contain, and why does accuracy matter here?
Read the worked answer
The report should be factual, timed, and free of speculation.
Contents:
- Time you were alerted/found the casualty, and how.
- Condition observed at the time (conscious, bleeding from leg, trapped) - described, not diagnosed.
- Actions taken and in what order (machine isolated, calls made and to whom, times, first aid given).
- Who else was present and what they did.
- Time paramedics/manager arrived and the handover.
- Any equipment or lighting defects you noticed.
Why accuracy matters: the report may be used in an injury investigation, an insurance or compensation process, and to defend your own conduct. Speculation about cause ('the operator was careless') or omitting a failed call can mislead the investigation and expose you. Write what you saw and did, with times, and leave causes to the investigators.