It was a routine she knew well—one she’d practised in drill after drill, and done plenty of times before real emergency calls. She kicked off her shoes and stepped into her boots, pulled her trousers up, shrugged on her jacket and climbed into her place in the rear of the engine.
Ray, the station manager, was already in the front seat, tapping into the computer. Kelsey handed him the fax and he scanned it, taking in the map reference and details. ‘Another driver’s called us, the police and the ambulance. Nothing about any other casualties or what sort of state the road’s in. Better put your PPE and conspicuity surcoats on now,’ he said to the crew. Joe, being the driver, was exempt until they’d stopped—then he’d need to put on the gear before he got out onto the carriageway.
‘What’s the plan, guv?’ Kelsey asked.
‘If the police get there first, they can set up traffic diversion. If we’re there first, we need the “police accident” sign up while I do the risk assessment,’ Ray said. ‘Kelsey, you’re the one with ALS training.’
As well as doing an advanced life support course, she shared a house with Matt, a paramedic, which meant she’d picked up a fair bit about casualty management.
‘If the ambo team aren’t there, I’ll need you to check out the casualties,’ Ray added.
‘Sure, guv.’ Kelsey nodded.
‘Road conditions good,’ Ray reported back to Control. ‘Visibility fine.’
It wasn’t ice or fog or heavy rain that had caused the crash. It was a summer afternoon, and the sun wasn’t yet low enough to dazzle a driver. So Kelsey’s best guess would be speed. That, or someone deciding to ignore the law and use a mobile phone without a hands-free kit—and then discovering the hard way that you couldn’t use a phone and drive safely at the same time.
Something she already knew, from extremely bitter experience.
She pushed the thoughts aside and concentrated on her job.
It turned out that the fire crew were the first on the scene. Joe parked on the side in front of the crashed lorry; Ray, as the officer in charge, did the risk assessment and radioed back to Base. ‘Dual carriageway, bit of a tailback but access is fine on the main road. Other carriageway fine, just the usual rubber-necking. No injured casualties on the carriageway. We’re going to check the vehicles now. No hazardous materials being carried that we know of. Some fuel spillage that needs containing.’
Ray directed his crew to contain and absorb the fuel spillage, and lay out the firefighting equipment to cover the area. ‘Brains, can you check the casualties and report back?’
‘Sure, guv.’ Kelsey smiled back at him, not minding the nickname. The crew had chosen it once they’d found out what she’d done before she’d become a firefighter—and it told her that she was accepted. Part of the team.
The lorry driver was shaking, clearly in shock, and Kelsey took the space blanket from their limited medical kit and put it round his shoulders. ‘OK, love. The ambulance will be here soon. Any pain I need to tell the medics about when they get here?’
‘No, I’m all right. But, oh, God. The other driver…’ He shuddered. ‘I can still feel his car going under my wheels.’
‘What happened?’ she asked gently.
The lorry driver shook his head. ‘The road’s clear. I dunno. I was doing sixty. Everything was fine. He must have been going past me, in my blind spot—next thing I knew, he was…’ The driver choked.
Kelsey glanced at the carriageway. From the pattern of skidmarks and the dent in the central reservation, it looked as if the driver had hit the barrier, spun round and ricocheted back into the path of the lorry.
‘OK, love. Come and sit down at the side of the road. Take a deep breath for me. And another. That’s right.’ She guided him to a safe waiting place. ‘The medics’ll be here any minute now. I’m just going to take a look at the car and see what I can do for the driver, OK? But someone will be here to see you very, very soon. If you need anything, come and see one of us, but make sure you stay on the hard shoulder, where it’s safe.’
‘My wife. I ought to…’ He swallowed hard.
Kelsey guessed what he was trying to say. ‘We’ll get in contact with her for you, love. Soon as the police are here. Don’t use your radio or mobile phone here, will you? Fire risk,’ she said economically. There was a ten-metre exclusion zone from the incident for using radios or mobile phones—a spark could ignite any leaking fuel. She patted his shoulder. ‘Back with you in a bit, OK?’
She steeled herself for a closer look at the car. No way was the driver going to get out of the car and walk away without a scratch. But at least there wasn’t a bull’s-eye on the windscreen, so either his airbag had kicked in or he’d just been lucky and hadn’t hit the windscreen head first.
There wasn’t a huge amount she could do before the ambulance arrived. But she could go through the basics—the course she’d taken plus what she’d learned from Matt would help.
ABCDE, she reminded herself. Work through it. The same way Matt did. Airway, breathing, circulation, disability, exposure.
She could see that the driver’s door was jammed but tried it anyway. No luck. Same with the passenger’s side. But she could at least get into the back—once the car was stabilised. From the damage to the car, she thought there was a high risk of the driver having some sort of cervical spine injury, so they needed to make sure the car didn’t move.
She opened the rear door on the driver’s side so she could at least talk to him. ‘I’m Kelsey, one of the fire crew,’ she said. ‘The ambulance is on its way. What’s your name, love?’
‘Harvey.’
Good. He could speak. So his airway was clear, not blocked with blood or vomit. His breathing seemed a bit shallow; she couldn’t get a proper look to see if he was losing any blood or had circulation problems; but he’d managed to answer a question and sounded lucid, so that ticked off ‘disability’ because there weren’t any immediate neurological problems. Exposure, so they could see the extent of his injuries…Well, that would have to wait until they’d cut him out. Even an experienced paramedic like Matt would find it tough to get the driver out of this space, so the odds were they’d have to use the hydraulic equipment—known as a Hurst, but they’d all been told to use the longer name because in the muffled environment of a crash vehicle the short name sounded more like ‘hearse’ and terrified the casualties.
‘Can you tell me if you’ve got any pain?’ she asked.
‘My neck,’ he said.
Could be whiplash; could be a spinal injury. She made a mental note to tell the paramedics. ‘As soon as the ambulance is here, we’ll get a collar on you and get you out.’
‘My legs. Hurt.’
Well, that was good. It was when they didn’t feel pain that she was worried, because that meant there was likely to be damage to the nerves. ‘We’ll get you out of here soon. Can you remember what happened?’
‘No.’
OK. She’d leave that one for the police to sort out. ‘Any passengers in the car?’ she asked.
‘No, just me,’ Harvey said.
Which meant they wouldn’t have to do a search and rescue: that was a relief. ‘I’m going to talk to my station manager about the best way to get you out. I’ll be back as soon as I can, OK?’
‘Don’t leave me.’ His breath hitched. ‘Please, don’t leave me here. I—I don’t want to be alone. Please.’
She slid a hand through the gap between the door and the seat and touched his face, comforting him. ‘Hey. I’ll be back before you know it. Promise. We’ll get you out of there, love.’
Ray was already assessing the vehicle