At a road collision

Before you approach

1 of 2 lessons

← At a road collision

More people are hurt at collisions after the collision than during it. The first minute is about the road, not the casualties.

  1. Stop far enough back. Park beyond the scene in the direction of travel, leaving room for emergency vehicles. Hazard lights on. At night or in poor visibility, headlights toward the scene.
  2. High-visibility clothing before you leave the vehicle, if you have it.
  3. Warn oncoming traffic. Warning triangle at the distance the local highway code requires — far enough that a driver at the speed of that road can stop. On a motorway, do not walk into live lanes to place it.
  4. Look before you go in. Fuel or fluid on the road, smoke, a vehicle on its side or against a structure, a bus or lorry with hazard placards, cables down, a vehicle in water. Any of those changes what you can safely do.
  5. Call. 112 across the European Union and the EEA; the local emergency number elsewhere. Say where you are, how many vehicles, how many people, whether anybody is trapped, whether anything is burning or leaking. Do not hang up before you are told to.

The things that make it worse.

  • Do not move a casualty unless they are in immediate danger where they are — fire, water, live traffic that cannot be stopped. Spinal injury is common in collisions and movement is what converts it into paralysis.
  • Do not remove a motorcycle helmet unless the airway cannot be managed otherwise, and then only with a second person stabilising the head.
  • Do not approach a vehicle with visible fuel spillage while anybody is smoking, and do not use a phone against the vehicle body.
  • Electric and hybrid vehicles: assume the high-voltage system is live. Do not touch orange cabling. Tell the emergency service what the vehicle is.
  • Airbags that have not deployed can deploy later. Stay out of their path.

Source. European Resuscitation Council Guidelines 2021, First Aid section, https://cprguidelines.eu/ and https://www.erc.edu/ ; WHO, Prehospital trauma care systems, https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/prehospital-trauma-care-systems

This is reading, not training. It does not replace an accredited first aid course, and where a trained responder is present, they lead.

This material is education, not certification, and it does not replace accredited professional or medical training. It describes how the association works; it is not legal advice and confers no powers.

The association counts visits with its own tables — no advertising, no third party, and nothing that follows you off this site. It is off unless you say otherwise, and you can change your mind at any time.

What is stored in your browser