The first batch of a unique year-long “First Responder Trauma Care Course” successfully completed its training here earlier this week. The first-of-its-kind course was introduced by the Automobile Association of Upper India (AAUI) together with the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), France, and International Road Federation (IRF), Geneva. The first batch included over 3,466 drivers.
Inspired by the training course, the government of Uttarakhand, too, has shown interest in educating commercial truck and car drivers of the state in trauma skills useful in preventing deaths on roads. Other states like Himachal, Haryana, Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir, too, are thinking of starting such workshops to equip commercial drivers with advanced know-how in first aid, apart from safe driving.
Introducing the idea of “transit training points”, T.K. Malhotra, AAUI president and a road safety expert, said: “It is the easiest solution to educate our drivers in road safety as well as trauma care. Commercial drivers are most vulnerable because they are always on the roads. This leads to the immediate challenge of how to educate them without affecting them. We have also suggested to the government of Uttarakhand that we can make training possible during transit. Commercial drivers heading to Dehradun via Delhi can attend a day-long training course in the capital. This is one among other suggestions that we have made to various stakeholders.” The project was inaugurated by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways in December 2015. The World Health Organisation has predicted that road traffic accidents will be the third leading cause of deaths in the world by 2020. AAUI’s trauma care course imparts techniques to commercial drivers on how to minimise the delay as first responder before transferring the victim to a hospital or trauma centre, assess whether the victim is alive and the nature of injury sustained, among other techniques.