Call to train truckies as First Responders

It’s hoped a pilot program to train truck drivers as First Responders at road traffic accidents could be rolled out on a national basis, equipping truckies with the skills and confidence to help save a life, while reducing the incidence of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and assisting operators to better support them after the event.

Speaking at the recent ATA Trucking Australia 22 conference on the Gold Coast, Cam Dumesny, CEO of WA’s Western Roads Federation and Director of TraumaSim, which makes medically accurate products to simulate wounds and injuries, said the incidence of truckies being first on the scene at road accidents in remote areas was both high and largely unreported.

“We know it happens, but there was no data on it,” he said.

Perth-based TraumaSim has previously been heavily involved in pre-deployment programs for Australian Defence Force personnel heading to Afghanistan and Iraq, where high-realism trauma training had been found to reduce PTSD.

Tactical First Aid Training

Similar training rolled out by Queensland Police Service (QPS) has already reaped major rewards in terms of outcomes for both patients and first responders.

While the QPS Active Armed Offenders program was designed in response to the Paris terror attacks of 2015, and largely focused on training officers to stop armed offenders, in 2017 Senior Constable Dustin Osborne initiated a Tactical First Aid Training program, which focused more on helping the victims.

“What we’d found, was that [following a high-trauma injury] standard first aid isn’t operationally relevant – we needed something that looks at high-fidelity trauma,” he told delegates at the ‘Truck Drivers as First Responders’ session at Trucking Australia 22.

Based on previous military experience, Osborne initiated the Tactical First Aid Training program, which would go on to win the World Police Safety Award in 2019. It has since been delivered to over 11,000 officers and is estimated to have saved over 90 lives.

Eschewing the traditional ‘DRSABCD’ first aid response, the program adopts a system that focuses on fixing the biggest killers in a high-trauma injury, with mass haemorrhage – ‘bleeding out’ – at the top of the list.

“If you haven’t gone through and mitigated a massive bleed, you will kill the patient,” Snr Constable Osborne said.

“This is why we’ve gone to this model … and brought in something that’s fit for us, fit for purpose.”

Related reading:
Trucking Australia 22: Solving the skills shortage
Industry's leading lights lauded
Trucking Australia 22: It's on!

Keep it simple

The QPS Tactical First Aid kit is light, small, and contains just the essentials: a tourniquet, a modular bandage, wound packing and chest seals. And it’s that simplicity that highlights another key strength of the approach.

“What we’re finding is that limited product helps create better forms of care because you’re reducing cognitive bandwith,” said Osborne.

“People who are stressed, they can’t think, they can’t function. So let’s take away options and keep it simple.”

The QPS program begins with a theory session, before ramping up to training officers with life-like ‘task trainers’ and high-realism training scenarios.

“Stress inoculation training is a massive thing that needs to be considered,” said Osborne.

But the results speak for themselves, with research showing the officers who have undergone the training now feel more prepared and more confident in these situations.

“Everything we do in Tactical First Aid is basic, very basic,” said Osborne.

“It’s not teaching anyone to be a doctor, we’re not diagnosing anything. But basic skills applied properly smash advanced skills done poorly out of the park every day.”

But, as Osborne pointed out, having these skills also brings significant benefits for those applying them.

“Turning up to a job and having a patient die on you is the most horrific thing you can experience,” he said.

“But turning up and being an active care provider and doing something for your casualty means you go home feeling better about yourself, better about the day, and not having that burden.

“We need to look after the people that respond and the people we help.”

Vital research

The Western Roads Federation and TraumaSim collaborated with Louise Bilato, Executive Officer of the Northern Territory Road Transport Association, to conduct some research into the hidden issue of truck drivers as first responders, assisted by small grant from the NHVR’s Heavy Vehicle Safety Initiative.

Ms Bilato, also a psychologist with 35 years of road freight industry experience, knew there was lot more that could be done to assist the health and wellbeing of remote area drivers, and so she oversaw a national survey conducted between May and July last year to gain some hard data, with 161 drivers taking part.

The 24-question survey found that 70 per cent of NT-based truck drivers had indeed been first responders at a road traffic accident. Nearly 30 per cent had been a first responder three or more times, and nearly 40 per cent were the sole responder.

”We wanted to understand the whole issue better,” Ms Bilato said.

“We also wanted to understand how we could support employers of those truck drivers because we are very aware that employers send their driver from A to B with freight – you don’t send your driver from A to B to be a paramedic. But that’s essentially what truck drivers who are first responders are.”

Beyond the survey, the research funding also helped deliver a series of four-hour first aid courses, informed by the Tactical First Aid course adopted by Queensland Police, undertaken by truck drivers in Darwin, Alice Springs, Port Hedland, Perth, and Brisbane.

The NT-based drivers were then issued with Tactical First Aid kits and will be tracked for three years.

Ms Bilato says some drivers are naturally better equipped to deal with trauma than others, and that even some first responders who felt confident in dealing with a road traffic accident at the time experienced challenges after the event.

“What was very telling … was that very few had any support in the aftermath,” she said.

“So they didn’t do an incident report, they didn’t get a post-incident debriefing. They continued on their way to do their job. And they didn’t get post-incident counselling or therapy. Again, they just went about their business.”

Ms Bilato said the research has shone a light on the issue, and the significant mental health risks that can impact some drivers as a result.

“Upskilling truck drivers with a short intensive course has got real potential to actually save lives and improve outcomes for those truck drivers in terms of their mental health and wellbeing,” she said.

“We employ people as is, where is – we can’t assume that everyone is resilient and able to manage the aftermath of these sorts of incidents.”

Next steps

Mr Dumesny said the way forward was clear.

“The most likely person to turn up at an accident is a truck driver,” he said.

“We’re a pragmatic industry; this is practical training. This is what we should be rolling out.”

Mr Dumesny said funding will be vital to take the initiative to the next level.

“Post-election we are asking for Federal Government funding, so we can go to the likes of SARTA or TTA or the National Road Freighters Association or whoever and say, ‘We’ve got a program, we can package it up or we can deliver it, and the [first aid] packs,’ but we’ll need federal funding to do it.”

Applying these techniques requires specific training, Mr Dumesny said.

“It’s a lot to put a tourniquet on and it’s an unnatural act to apply pressure to someone who’s hurting,” he said.

“Again – and this is what the military found out – you’ve got to learn that muscle memory. They’re screaming and you’re doing something to hurt them, but you’re saving their life. And if you learn that in advance, the military has found you can help reduce PTSD because you can resolve that in your head. I really ask that you support this program; I think it’s fantastic.”