AFTER a number of incidents on the region’s roads this Easter, Margaret River Volunteer Fire and Rescue Service asks the community to keep their heads up and wits about them when driving this wet season.
The Rescue Service has been utilised numerous times in the past few weeks, with the serious car crash in Cowaramup on April 8 a moment when the volunteers were called to action in the middle of the night.
Captain Jeff Bushby said he was dealing with late night paper work when he received the call to action at approximately 11.40pm.
The crew assembled from their homes within minutes of the call, with no hesitancy in going to help.
“That’s the life of a volunteer, essentially,” Mr Bushby said.
Mr Bushby said fires were only a small component of what the volunteer group did, with the majority of their time spent on minor to serious road incidents.
Mr Bushby said on average throughout the year the volunteers would be called out to an accident once every 12 days.
The volunteer effort is utilised in mitigating hazards, with Mr Bushby saying they are heavily involved in patient handling when assisting ambulance officers to reach the victims of the road.
The volunteers dedicatedly train every Wednesday night, giving on average 4-5 hours of their time a week towards the service.
Mr Bushby said every member of their team became involved due to a strong inclination to serve their community.
“We don’t do it for thanks,” Mr Bushby said.
“These people have the capacity to help, so they do.”
Mr Bushby is asking the community to concentrate on the roads, to not only help the volunteer service reach an accident in life saving time, but also to avoid it from occurring at all.
With a window of an hour deemed ‘the golden hour’ to reach a victim before the chances of a full recovery drop dramatically, Mr Bushby said the community needed to be aware of their surroundings when a rescue vehicle was in action.
“If you see or hear us, slow down, move left when safe and merge,” Mr Bushby said.
“We’re not there to scare them; we just want the community to be conscious of their actions to help us.”
The Rescue Service also asks the community to check their tyres and make sure their vehicle is road-worthy this season.