Civilians at Accident Scenes are a Menace

[doug_e 0]

I rolled up on that fatal MVA on the Thruway on Saturday morning. I'm usually arriving at these types of scenes with the 1st due rig so I generally don't get to see what's transpired prior to my arrival. And thank God for that!!!

For some reason the public has it in their heads that cars WILL explode shortly after accidents so it is imperative that they do whatever they can to yank, rip and drag any injured victims clear of the impending doom.

There were maybe 8 people with no accident experience pulling people from these two cars. Even when I asked this one guy to "comfort" this 70 yo. woman whose legs were wrapped up under the dash and wait for the FD to arrive, as soon as I turned around there he was pulling her from the car by the shoulders with her head in his armpit. I left her to stop this other genius from breaking the window to get at the driver. I successfully disuaded him from smashing the window and promptly lowered it electrically and then opened the door with the handle.

My advice to the general public is - Take a look at your wife, see... it's only on TV that ugly guys have knockout wives, and only on TV and in the movies does every car mishap result in a catastrophic explosion and fire ball killing everyone in a 500' radius.

You're doing more harm than good...

Leave the victims as you found them unless you see flame!

Yeesh....

[ajsbear 11]

I have to agree with Doug. When you pull up before any of the rigs you spend more time keeping the general public from doing more harm to the victims. Smoke at the accident scene as we know can be steam or even from the air bags. Also as we all know breaking a car window is not all that easy without a window punch. You probably stopped the rocket scientist that was about to atempt breaking the window from hurting himself.

Now flames are another story.

[doug_e 0]

He was banging the window with the but end of an adjustable wrench. Quite a scary situation. It makes me want to start a crusade.

[brian19fd 22]

I agree... yes its good to have the help or concern from civilians but when they start taking matters into their own hands, problems can arise and possibly seriously hurt a victim or even themselves... Overall just leave the job to the professionals but thanks for wanting to help...

[Guest WolfEMT]

Unless it's really really really bad and you need as much help as you can get until the first responding units arrive, civilians should be mandated to stay at least 50 feet away from the accident scene. That's just my own personal feeling.

[Guest]

Well the public only knows what they see on T.V. and in the movies, so of course they will act differently or foolishly on the scene of an M.V.A. before and sometimes during our presence. Maybe locally we can fix this problem. Most F.D.'s have an "open house" so why not teach a public information segment on the "civillians role at a car accident" if every department in your surrounding area does this at least once a year, it can only help us as responders in the future.

[mstrang1 213]

Well, we all know from the movies that in EVERY car accident, the car will blow up within seconds of the accident! We have to flop that guys head around to save him from the huge explosion and ensuing fire!

[Guest WolfEMT]

I agree with scubajones, but as part of the education process, we should all stress the importance of letting us do our jobs and to keep civilian interference out due to its detraction from the tasks at hand.