Taken from one of my web pages and posted in the hope that it helps you to stay safe and have a great trip.
Emergency
Sadly there’s often an emergency in the bush. Not the sort where your beer supply has run out, but the sort where lives are endangered or lost. Vehicle accidents including the ever-present rollovers and accidents between vehicles coming into contact with each other or stationary objects are all too common.
Sometimes it’s a lost vehicle or person. Straying away from the track and not telling anyone of your intended route is irresponsible to say the least. People can and do die in the bush, but it’s the ones who should of known better that get to me.
Vehicles in poor mechanical condition, lack of water
reserves, city driving habits, these are some of the things that can get us into real trouble.
Occasionally some of the more newsworthy cases get into the papers. There are many more that don’t.
Even if
well prepared, chances are that at some time or another we will come across someone else’s misfortune. It may be a fatality, a loss of vehicle or whatever, if we arrive on the scene then we have a responsibility to try and help and to get help.
I know a few people who don’t bother to buy or hire a radio or satellite phone. They claim that they can look after themselves. Hopefully they will never come across an accident hundreds of kilometers from town.
On my last trip I was rounding a wide sweeping bend on the
Great Central Road. There was a convoy of mining vehicles coming the other way and I was busy watching them and staying out of their way. Around the bend was a sorry sight. A small 4wd was backed into the bush with its top half stove in. Clothes and belongings were strewn all over the track. A quick glance revealed nobody inside or anywhere else. The mining convoy slowed and stopped as I slowed. They were closer at this stage and there were more of them. They would have had communications of some sort and probably needed little assistance. I slowly pulled away, knowing that I would only of gotten in their way.
I found out later that the occupants weren’t seriously hurt and had been given a lift into the next settlement.
The rules for this kind of situation are little different from a normal accident. Firstly if you can’t help don’t get in the way.
Keep out of trouble yourself. Don’t stop or wander where a road train can bowl you over.
If possible, get someone to slow passing traffic down. Assume that someone will come along and that you don’t want more than one accident on your hands.
Render medical assistance. If you think
first aid is a pop group, you’re wrong. Learn it.
Get assistance using whatever means are at hand. When doing this, report the situation calmly and be specific about the needs.
Police? Medical? Tow truck? Who are you and where are you ? These simple facts will help bring assistance as quickly as possible.
A few minutes ago there was an emergency on the 737 network. Efforts were hampered because the person reporting the emergency was a little vague with the details. Rollovers aren’t nice things to happen, and often involve injuries and possible fatalities. Luckily this one didn’t involve any of those.
The other night a bloke hit a cow a long way from anywhere. No human damage but the Land cruiser wasn’t going anywhere. He should have been cold and upset. Possible shock. Not only was he as cool as a cucumber, but he had all the details at hand which made helping him so much easier.
At times like those we suddenly discover that no matter how self sufficient and hairy chested we think that we are, we all depend on each other to help out. The radio network, the ambulance and
police or tow truck, the Flying Doctor. We assume that these people are going to help us. And they usually do.
The bloke that you whiz past at 120km might just have to stop you bleeding to death down the track.
So when you’re out and about in the bush, be sensible and take precautions with strangers. But show them some courtesy and kindness. Slow down and pull to one side of the track when they’re coming the other way for starters.
You just don’t know when you’re going to need them.