Good crash course held

Members of the Scottish Ambulance Service treat the 'victims' in the mock exercise.

The Scottish Ambulance Service, Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and Police Scotland held training exercises in the Borders recently for students and new recruits to practice responding to a road traffic collision (RTC).

The mock exercises, held at Galashiels Fire Station on March 7 and Hawick Fire Station on March 14 with different groups of attendees, involved a two vehicle, high-speed, head-on collision, and saw different levels of responses.

Paramedic Lee Myers, Scottish Ambulance Service’s lead for the exercise, said: “This training has been designed around student and new recruit development, as we continue to welcome new staff into the service.

“The exercise involved dealing with a serious RTC, with Police Scotland, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service attending alongside the Scottish Ambulance Service.

“The participants from all the services did a fantastic job dealing with the incident which included casualties with potentially serious injuries.

"We also had approximately 20 Queen Margaret University student paramedics attend on the night and crews dealing with a traumatic cardiac arrest, a roof-off extrication, patients being fully immobilised, and much more.

“The three services share an excellent working relationship and this has been a great opportunity to work on improving communication and joint agency working.

"I would like to say a huge thank you to all involved for making this training exercise such a success.”

Area Commander Hilary Sangster is the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service’s Local Senior Officer for Midlothian, East Lothian and Scottish Borders.

She said: “Exercises such as this are important and hugely worthwhile for our firefighters to train to protect our communities alongside emergency service colleagues in a unique and dynamic environment – and also follow several months of planning.

"I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all those involved and especially Station Commanders Grant Fraser and Roy Bradley, and our partners for their continued commitment to this multi-agency training.”