MOCK ACCIDENT

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 148, 18 March 1939, Page 13

MOCK ACCIDENT

‘‘Explosion” In Railway Workshops

AMBULANCE PRACTICE The railway workshops, Lower Hutt, were the scene of unusual activities recently, when the first combined practice of the Hutt Valley divisions of the St. John Ambulance Brigade was held. It was pretended that, an explosion had occurred in the workshops. The recently formed Hutt Valley in-ter-divisional executive, with Mr. C. E. Binns, superintendent of the Petone Ambulance Division, as chairman, and Mr. A. J. Ross, ambulance officer of the Hutt Valley Railway Ambulance Division, as secretary, had arranged a “casualty night” for the purpose.of testing the efficiency of the Hutt Valley Divisions to deal with a local or national disaster.

Upon the alarm being given members of the Petone and Hutt Valley Railway Ambulance Divisions went to the erecting shop, and with the aid of electric torches discovered several “injured” Jving among the locomotives on the “pits.” Within three-quarters of an hour 47 “injuries” had received first aid treatment, and the injured persons conveyed on stretchers and hand seats, to the “casualty clearing station,” where full particulars relating to the “case” were recorded by the receiving officer. The “patients” were then transported to the social hall, which, with the aid of tables and blankets, the members of the Lower Hutt Nursing Division had transformed into a temporary hospital, where nurses redressed the wounds or adjusted dressings under the instruction of doctors. Patients were provided by the Petone Cadet Ambulance and Lower Hutt Cadet Nursing Divisions. A demonstration of bedmaking was given by members of the Lower Hutt Cadet Nursing Division,' and members of the ambulance divisions demonstrated the use of the Lowmoor stretcher by lowering a “patient” from an overhead crane.

The officers responsible for the arrangements were: Supervising and injuries, Divisional Superintendent C. E. Binns; first aid, Ambulance Officer A. McPherson; transport, Divisional Superintendent R. C. Horwell; receiving and recording, Cadet Officer J. W. Roy; casualty clearing, Ambulance Officer A. J. Ross; hospital supervisor. Lady Divisional Superintendent Mrs. C. A. Fuller; discharge, Ambulance Officer A. B. Gray; O.C. nursing cadets, Lady .Cadet Superintendent Miss G. A. Stiles. Valuable assistance was given by Drs. R. A. Bakewell and H. G. Rix and Miss G. Weils.

The spectators included Mr. G. H. “Maekley, General Manager of Railways, Commissioner F. IV. Ward, District Superintendent W. W. Duttoii, Corps Superintendent F. D. Elvines and district and corps officers, members of the Wellington Railway ambulance and nursing divisions, Lady Superintendent Mrs. Falconer, Taurangff, and friends of members. Several of the visitors congratulated the members upon the efficient work performed, and made special reference to the capable manner in which Superintendent C. E. Binns improvised the injuries. For the first time in New Zealand the use of “printed lists” of injuries was dispensed with and the “improvised injuries” were so adjusted to the “patients” that in the half-light they appeared. like actual injuries. District officers had to have more than one look at some of the “fractures” to satisfy themselves that they were “faked.”

Commissioner F. W. Ward presented a wristlet watch to Divisional Superindent R. C. Horwell on behalf of the members of the Hutt Valley Railway Ambulance Division, as an expression of appreciation for services to the division.

When some of the cadets were returning to their homes they gave first-, aid in an accident. A girl bad been' knocked down by a motor-ear. The cadets ran to the scene of the accident, found the girl was suffering from abrasions and concussion, applied first aid and conveyed the injured girl to her home.