Help Alert: A First-Aid Training Policy for Drivers and a Call for-Help Application for Timely Prehospital Assistance by TrafficBystanders

Abstract

The statistics of injuries from road traffic accidents have exceeded 50 million people annually, costing over 1.35 million lives. One of the causes of this massive loss is attributed to the inadequacy and delay in pre-hospital care. Accordingly, after the process of literature review and interviews with paramedics and the general population, this study has proposed (1) a first-aid training policy where drivers are mandated to undergo traffic safety and first-aid training before the issue of driving licenses, and (2) a call-for-help application during emergencies, in order to raise the number of first-aid responders at the sites of incidents. This is because first responders from bystanders tend to arrive approximately 3 minutes in advance of the average arrival time of ambulances. By developing this sequential solution, there will prospectively be a higher number of medically trained first-responder-bystanders that can ultimately save the time-sensitive injuries of traffic accidents.