road safety

App launched to help rescue workers extricate vehicle occupants

Barbour EHS

Euro NCAP, the consumer vehicle safety testing organisation, has launched a ‘Euro RESCUE app’, giving rescue workers easier access to ‘rescue sheets’, detailed information for different car models on how to quickly and safely extricate occupants.

The immediate moments following a collision, referred to as the ‘golden hour’ can mean life or death for injured parties. It’s the time following a traumatic injury during which there is the highest likelihood that prompt medical and surgical treatment will prevent death. Therefore, it’s critical that first responders can access the injured to emergency care as quickly and safely as possible.

One of the major challenges in that process following a road traffic accident, is accessing the information to know where and how to cut vehicles open to safely extricate occupants. The development of modern vehicles has seen the introduction of devices such as airbags and electrical vehicle batteries, which have only added to the complexity, and the dangers for rescue teams.  With thousands of different vehicle models on the roads, of varying ages, getting up-to-date access to the correct rescue sheet is also a technical and logistical challenge.

Euro RESCUE App

To combat this, Euro NCAP has launched a new ‘Euro RESCUE App‘, available for phones and tablets running Apple or Google Android software. The app includes all vehicles models tested since the beginning of 2020 will be available and will eventually be available in the 23 EU languages. It has launched in English, French, German and Spanish.

A newly agreed ISO international standard for rescue sheet design is also helping bring consistency to the information.

Ensuring better availability of vehicle rescue sheets was one of the points repeatedly raised during ETSC’s Revive project, a collaboration between road safety actors and emergency services, which looked at improving emergency response in Europe.

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