LAKE COUNTY >> The South Lake County and Lake County Fire Protection Districts were awarded a $105,000 traffic safety grant for the purchase of Rescue Extrication Equipment with funding from the California Office of Traffic Safety. The program is overseen by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The grant funded three complete sets of extrication tools which can aid in extricating and rescuing victims from a severely damaged vehicle. In 2016, the South Lake County and Lake County Fire Protection Districts responded to 212 collisions. Of these, 42 of those required extrication.
“This grant will assist the South Lake County and Lake County Fire Protection Districts in obtaining much needed safety equipment to carefully, effectively and efficiently extricate critically injured crash victims trapped in a vehicle on our roadways,” said Battalion Chief Mike Wink. “These Extrication Tools will offer a quicker means of disentangling victims of vehicular accidents, thereby reducing the time it takes for those victims to reach emergency care facilities.”
Delays in extrication can negatively impact the patient’s critical “golden hour” of trauma survivability. The “golden hour” for Emergency Medical Services is the core principle of rapid intervention in trauma cases: First, get to the patient quickly, second is to treat what can be treated on scene, and third is to quickly get the patient to the right hospital. Anything that can be done to compress each of these time periods aids in patient survival/recovery.
The grant will assist in efforts to reduce the number of persons killed in traffic collisions. Traffic deaths from all causes increased nearly 17 percent from 2010 to 2015 in California. State and federal officials anticipate that final figures will show another rise for 2016. Safer roads and cars, stepped up enforcement and awareness, along with faster and more effective extrication equipment for emergency responders will help in sending that trend downward.
While alcohol remains the worst offender for DUI crashes, The South Lake County and Lake County Fire Protection Districts support the new effort from OTS that aims to drive awareness that “DUI Doesn’t Just Mean Booze.” Prescription medications and marijuana can also be impairing by themselves, or in combination with alcohol, and can result in a DUI arrest.
There will be a demonstration with the new extrication tools at the Annual South Lake County Fire Protection District Open House Event in Middletown on April 28, 2018. The public will be invited to see this new equipment at work. South Lake County Fire personnel will demonstrate its use during a live extrication drill for the public to view.
