In 2022, MAIC provided funding to the Queensland Trucking Association (QTA) to develop and implement First on Scene, a pilot program that incorporated first aid and crash scene management training tailored to heavy vehicle drivers. With the assistance of Queensland Ambulance, Energy Australia, St John’s Ambulance and the Queensland Police Service, this pilot has recently been completed and resulted in the training being delivered to 129 truck drivers across Queensland.
Data from 2020-21 evidences that approximately 17 billion kilometres were travelled within Queensland by the road freight industry.
Given heavy vehicle drivers’ prevalence on rural and remote roads, these drivers are more likely to arrive first on scene to a crash and therefore they can play a critical role in securing the crash scene, rendering first aid, and activating the emergency care system in rural and remote areas.
To complement piloting of this program, Associate Professor Darren Wishart from Griffith University was engaged to provide research support to QTA to independently measure its effectiveness. The findings from this research were positive with participants reporting significantly improved knowledge, skills and confidence to both render first aid and safely manage a crash scene after undertaking the First on Scene program. Whilst crashes in regional and remote Queensland happen less frequently, when they do occur they often result in more significant injuries and thus higher claims costs to the Queensland CTP scheme.
An additional key outcome from the project has been the development of the resource booklet “The Glovebox Guide”. Designed to be stored in the vehicle as reference, this reinforces key messages for the driver to follow should they come across a crash scene. The resource has already been distributed to over 700 drivers, further disseminating this training across the Queensland heavy vehicle industry and will be an important resource into the future.