Road Accident

FFR (Road accident) are FREER volunteer responders that are trained in providing emergency and rescue operations on road accident to save lives and to deescalate casualty distress.

According to data recently released by the World Health Organization (WHO), an estimated 55 million people died worldwide in the year 2011. Of these, 1.3 million were due to road injuries, equating to roughly 3500 each day from road traffic injuries. By these statistics road traffic accidents (RTA) ranked among the top 10 leading causes in 2011. By 2030, car accidents will be the fifth leading cause of death in the world, if this trend were to continue. Globally, RTA is the leading cause of injury-related deaths.

In Nigeria, injuries and deaths resulting from RTA are on the rise, and account for the highest proportion of deaths on the Africa continent. Road accidents are Nigeria's third-leading cause of overall deaths, the leading cause of trauma-related deaths and the most common cause of disability. According to the WHO, the country has 1042 deaths a year for every 100,000 vehicles, one of the highest rates of road fatalities in the world. Statistics show that there is a rising incidence of RTA in Nigeria and other developing countries with adverse physical and socioeconomic implications.

Duties of FREER here include:

1. Identifying casualties and ascertaining those needing quick response by prioritizing response
2. Giving first aid based on international standard operating procedure of the injury sustained
3. Move casualties to the paramedic van and then to the hospital
4. Control traffic and free flow of vehicles within the accident scene
5. Proper documentation and marking of accident scene for police report without contaminating evidence. This emergency response team collaborate with the FRSC and the NPF basically.