Emergency Cards EN-GB

United Kingdom

Road accident

Reviewed

Use at your own risk. For education and research only, not medical advice. Check the numbers and rules for the country you are in. They change. Before you rely on these cards, have a medical professional or a fire safety specialist review them. Disclaimer

Do this first

Stop safely past the scene with your hazard lights on. Put on a high-visibility vest before you step out, and set a warning triangle well back.

At a crash site the traffic is the biggest threat, and more helpers are hit by passing cars than hurt by anything else. Thirty seconds spent making the scene visible protects you, the casualties and everyone arriving behind you.

Step by step

  1. Park behind the scene if possible, with hazards on, and put on a vest before leaving the car. Place the triangle far back, on a motorway around 100 metres or more, before a bend or crest.
  2. Look before you act: leaking fuel, smoke, traffic, a live cable, a loose load. Switch off the ignition of crashed cars if you can reach it.
  3. Call 999 with the location, the number of vehicles, the number of injured, and whether anyone is trapped or unconscious or the road is blocked.
  4. Speak to every casualty. Anyone who answers, breathes and is not bleeding heavily can wait. Anyone who does not answer needs you first.
  5. An unconscious person in a car: tilt the head back carefully where they sit to open the airway. Move them out only if they are not breathing or there is fire or water, then start CPR on the ground.
  6. Stop heavy bleeding with direct pressure, cover wounds and keep casualties warm and still. A conscious motorcyclist keeps the helmet on.
  7. Nobody walks around. Keep the uninjured behind the barrier or off the road, and send someone to wave the emergency services in.

Never do this

  • Never pull people out of vehicles just because it looks wrong. Extraction is for absent breathing, fire or sinking. Otherwise the spine waits for professionals.
  • Never remove a motorcyclist's helmet if they are conscious. If you must remove it for CPR, it is a careful job for two people.
  • Never stand between two vehicles or on the traffic side of the wreck, and never let anyone smoke near spilt fuel.

Call emergency services if

  • Any crash with injury, or anyone trapped, unconscious or complaining of neck or back pain.
  • Fuel leaking, smoke, a lorry with hazard plates, or a blocked road.
  • Any pedestrian, cyclist or motorcyclist who was hit, even one who says they are fine and wants to leave.

Common questions

Am I required to stop and help?

Drivers involved in an accident must stop and exchange details under the Road Traffic Act, and report injuries to the police. Bystanders have no general legal duty to intervene, but securing the scene, calling 999 and pressing on bleeding are things anyone can do safely.

The car might explode. Should I not pull everyone out?

Film explosions are fiction. Fuel fires are real but visible, with smoke and flames. If there is no fire, the greater danger to a casualty with a spinal injury is usually being moved by you. If there is fire, extract fast and roughly. A live casualty matters more than a perfect technique.

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Sources and standards

Use at your own risk. For education and research only, not medical advice. Check the numbers and rules for the country you are in. They change. Before you rely on these cards, have a medical professional or a fire safety specialist review them.