According to the Highway Code motorists should always help injured people in case of accidents and if you fail to do you will be fined. If you help the injured in case of accident, you will not be arrested “in the act”, that is on the accident site. According to the Criminal Code, the obligation to provide assistance concerns not only those involved in the accident in any way, but also passers-by who note the presence of injured people after the event.
The “assistance” required by the law consists of several phases, each intended to provide help in order to save human lives or limit the damage.
On the site of the accident, these are the actions to perform:
- make the site of the accident “safe”, signalling to incoming vehicles the presence of the accident and of the obstacle on the carriageway. To this end, there are many options available: park your vehicle safely before the site of the accident, turning on all your lights, positioning the warning triangle, etc, but remember not to put your life in danger at any time. Signalling the accident is important to prevent incoming vehicles from crashing into the vehicles involved in the accident and making other victims;
- “assess” the seriousness of the accident, determining the approximate number of the injured and the seriousness of the injuries. You are not expected to make professional evaluations or to assess if the victims are dead or alive. What matters is acquiring the elements to proceed to the next phase.
- “inform” emergency services and provide detailed information on the site of the accident, the type of vehicles involved, the number of injured people, the seriousness of their injuries, whether there are people trapped inside the vehicles. These elements are extremely important: based on your information the emergency operator will put together an “expected scenario” and determine how many ambulances to send over, which kind of medical personnel and equipment is required, and whether to call in the Fire Brigade. This phase is critical and should be carried out “in cold blood”. Every detail you provide could make a difference.
- “Provide assistance”, within the limits of your abilities and ensuring maximum caution. Some injuries require maneuvers and operations that are better left to specialists, others can be performed by non specialists too, but with great care, calm and an eye on the overall situation. In this phase, doing the wrong thing – too much or too little - may considerably worsen the situation.
- “Assessing seriousness” Seriousness refers to “life threatening” circumstances. Do not let the “quantity of blood” on the scene of the accident influence you: there are extremely serious internal injuries that do not bleed while other, less serious injuries – like cuts to the face or the limbs – are much more “visible”, but not “serious”. In general, for the purpose of this assessment, a person can be considered “seriously injured” if:
he/she is unconscious;
he/she was thrown out of the vehicle or off the motorbike;
he/she hit the steering wheel or the dashboard violently without wearing a seat beat (the seriousness of the injury can be judged also by the damage to the vehicle);
he/she is trapped under a heavy weight or pierced by an object (this should be told to the emergency operator);
the position of his/her trunk or head is so unnatural as to suspect spinal damage;
in case of a child, even if none of the above apply, he/she is haemorrhaging considerably.
On the other hand, “minor” or “moderate” injuries include the following:
abrasions, excoriations, bruises, cuts;
broken nose, teeth, fingers.