Making learner drivers our new generation mobile life savers

Learner drivers could be mobile life savers

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 50% of road traffic accident fatalities happen in the first few minutes following an accident, well before the emergency services arrive.

This means that if there is someone on the scene with CPR knowledge it can make a huge difference to outcomes. According to the WHO, CPR training can quadruple the chances of car accident survival. So improving first aid knowledge and training to the wider community is critically important to saving more lives.

Armed with this knowledge dozens of countries around the world have already acted on this common sense approach by making CPR training a mandatory part of getting a driver’s license.

Europe has taken the high road and it’s saving lives

According to the Red Cross  countries such as Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain and Switzerland require mandatory CPR/first aid knowledge as part of the driving test.

For example, in Switzerland, the driving theory test incorporates a 10 hour first aid course. In Germany there is a 45 minutes test on first aid and CPR required for all drivers and this has been part of the theory test since 2016. 

The UK has also been trying to make mandatory first aid training part of the driving test.

In Denmark, they have been doing this since 2005. The government launched a campaign to teach residents CPR in order to save lives. Elementary school children have been taught the basics of first aid and CPR and it is a compulsory part of the driving test. Results have been impressive. Within the first few years, the survival rates of cardiac arrest victims jumped from 8% (roughly where Australia is now) to 22%.  This rate can only improve the longer the training of new drivers and school children continues and becomes something that everyone can do.

Australian ‘P platers’ are a potential driving force in saving lives

Compared to Europe, Australia is lagging behind and according to St Johns Ambulance, all learner drivers and school children should be taught basic first aid and CPR.

Ambulance WA chief executive, Michelle Fyre, explained how relatively simple interventions such as “getting a clear airway, putting an injured person in the recovery position, controlling bleeding and delivering CPR if it was needed could make all the difference, “

According to figures, hundreds of lives could have been saved in Australia, had basic first aid been carried out at the scene of the accident. The problem is one of knowledge and then timing, because with a cardiac arrest a person’s brain starts to die within four minutes of their heart stopping beating.

As CPRfriendly.org founder Ian Hutchinson explains, “For every 60 seconds you are in cardiac arrest, your chance of survival diminishes by 10 per cent,”

“An ambulance in the metropolitan area is on average ten minutes away. If CPR hasn’t been applied in the first few minutes, by the time our expert paramedics get there, the chances of survival are less than 10 per cent.”