CONTRIBUTED ARTICLE
SOLEDAD — The South Monterey County Fire Protection District (SOMOCO) and the City of Soledad Fire Department partnered for a regional traffic safety grant and were awarded $70,000 for the purchase of electric powered extrication equipment with funding from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The grant funded extrication equipment — spreaders, cutters and rams — can aid in extricating victims from a severely damaged vehicle. In 2016, SOMOCO responded to 137 crashes to aid victims injured in which 29 of those required extrication. The City of Soledad responded to 148 crashes to aid victims injured in which 40 of those calls required extrication.
“This grant will assist SOMOCO and the City of Soledad FD in obtaining much needed safety equipment to decrease the response and rescue time for critically injured crash victims trapped in a vehicle on our roadways,” said Battalion Chief Brian Nichols Owens. “The new grant funded extrication equipment is being placed on vehicles that currently have old and obsolete extrication equipment.”
Owens added, “And, being electric powered extrication equipment it will be quicker to place in service at the emergency decreasing delays in the rescue of persons trapped in vehicle accidents.”
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: 1) get to the patient quickly, 2) treat what can be treated on scene, and 3) quickly get the patient to the right hospital.
Anything that can be done to compress each of these time periods aids in patient survival and 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, SOMOCO and the City of Soledad 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.
Additionally, the grant funds will also purchase adapters and brackets to mount the equipment on fire apparatus.
