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Safety training for the Subaru World Rally test team
Letter from SWRT
9 December 2005
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In pursuit of the ideal proving ground, The SWRT test team travels to remote locations all around the world. Often working on private land and on obscure tracks that can only be found by GPS coordinates, the team must be completely self sufficient and ready to deal with every eventuality. Safety is of paramount importance to Subaru and a paramedic attends each test, but as an extra safeguard six members of the test team recently attended a course to bring them up to date with the latest techniques and procedures to be followed the event of an accident.
Run over two days in late November, the course featured both theoretical and practical training in how to manage the period between an emergency being reported and the arrival of the emergency services. The programme was run by Kilo 1-9, a consultancy that trains motorsport teams in the provision of specialist medical assistance. Members of the test team studied for a 'First Person on the Scene' (FPSO) qualification which covered how to assess an accident, provide initial medical help and free any trapped occupants.
According to Kilo 1-9 training manager and FPOS course leader Steve Benbow, training key members of the team to have basic life-saving medical skills and an awareness of the processes involved with extrication is vitally important. "It is becoming more commonplace that emergency medical treatment is administered in situ as sometimes it can be time consuming and potentially hazardous to extricate a casualty. It's crucial that those trained to help are familiar with the most modern techniques."
The first day of the course was spent in the classroom where the six learned essential first aid, how to assess an incident scene and the theories of getting injured people out of a vehicle.
On day two, it was time to put their new skills into practice in an accident simulation. Using the same range of cutting and extrication tools that are carried on their trucks, the team worked to free a volunteer from inside a car. More used to making miracle repairs to vehicles than pulling them apart, the SWRT rescuers used tools including powerful hydraulic snips to carefully cut the car into sections and reach the man inside.
After treating the occupant in the correct way, the test team members passed their FPSO qualification with flying colours.
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2006
2005
