Red Cross conducts First aid awareness for 3 wheel drivers in Colombo District

26/03/2014 – Colombo, Sri Lanka: The Sri Lanka Red Cross Society (SLRCS), in association with its Colombo Branch, and the Colombo City Traffic Police of the Sri Lanka Police conducted first aid lessons for three wheel drivers in the city limits of Colombo free of charge recently.

Many deaths have been attributed to the lack of knowledge in administering first aid, during the first 60 minutes since the accident. As per Traffic Police statistics nearly five persons lose their lives due to injuries sustained, owing to a road accident, and these accidents mostly involved motorbikes, trishaws and buses.

170 three-wheel drivers and 15 police officers participated in the programme and were educated on airway Management, recovery methods, wounds & bleeding, fracture management, burns and patient transportation. On completion of the programme the participants were given a certificate and a sticker to be pasted on the three wheels.

The Sri Lanka Red Cross Society is increasingly concerned about the rapid escalation of the road safety crisis within Sri Lanka. Road crash injury is a major issue. Urgent action is now required to reverse the growing mortality rate that affects mainly young people.

Accordingly Sri Lanka Red Cross Society has identified the importance of ensuring that it needs to support Government efforts as part of being an auxiliary to the Sri Lankan Government in addressing this crisis.

Within the Colombo city limits there are over 10,000 number of three wheelers active, and in most accidents they are the first people to be at the site and helping many victims to be transported to hospitals or medical facilities. Most of the time the situation of the injured are been worsen due to the lack of knowledge in First Aid, hence the timely decision by the Red Cross to ensure that the relevant knowledge is been disseminated accurately to three wheel drivers.

This first phase of the programme, was held at the vicinity of the Modara Police.

President of SLRCS Jagath Abeysinghe, Branch Executive Officer of the Colombo Branch Kumari Kothalawala, National First Aid Consultant Upali Amrasekara, Sub Inspector of Police S. Kaviraj and several other officials were present at the event.

This programme is also part of the larger project from the Sri Lanka Police, which currently conduct road safety awareness to three wheel drivers. They will be coordinating with area police and will ensure the participation of three wheel drivers from the respective districts for this programme.

Meanwhile the Sri Lanka Red Cross hopes to expand this project into various parts of the island in the days to come.