OneOffDave
Member
- Joined
- 2 Apr 2015
- Messages
- 453
Following on from a number of threads about trains being evacuated had me pondering about a couple of things to do with evacuating wheelchair users. For clarity, none of this is intended as a 'dig' at anyone.
When practicing this do the TOCs/emergency services use 'genuine*' wheelchair users or do they use TOC/emergency service/other able bodied volunteers to role-play wheelchair users? Just wondering how realistic the training/exercising was. In other exercises I've been involved with, when things get a bit tricky, the person role-playing a wheelchair user has got up and walked to resolve the tricky bit.
The other thing I've not been able to find out from TOCs is what they plan to do with a wheelchair user once they've been moved to a place of safety. When I asked SWR, they said the wheelchair user would be taken off in a stretcher on a spinal board and then left in the care of the ambulance service until the chair could be offloaded from the train once it's moved to a suitable location. Having worked with the ambulance service a lot, I can't see them committing a double crewed ambulance to look after an otherwise unharmed wheelchair user for as long as that takes.
I know a number of wheelchair users (and myself) who've worked with the blue lights in making the training more realistic and providing useful positive feedback in other areas of emergency response so wondered if it was similar in the rail world.
*I don't like using that term as it implies there are 'fake' wheelchair users around but I meant people who use a chair regularly in their everyday lives as opposed to someone just sitting in a chair during training or an exercise to role play a wheelchair user
When practicing this do the TOCs/emergency services use 'genuine*' wheelchair users or do they use TOC/emergency service/other able bodied volunteers to role-play wheelchair users? Just wondering how realistic the training/exercising was. In other exercises I've been involved with, when things get a bit tricky, the person role-playing a wheelchair user has got up and walked to resolve the tricky bit.
The other thing I've not been able to find out from TOCs is what they plan to do with a wheelchair user once they've been moved to a place of safety. When I asked SWR, they said the wheelchair user would be taken off in a stretcher on a spinal board and then left in the care of the ambulance service until the chair could be offloaded from the train once it's moved to a suitable location. Having worked with the ambulance service a lot, I can't see them committing a double crewed ambulance to look after an otherwise unharmed wheelchair user for as long as that takes.
I know a number of wheelchair users (and myself) who've worked with the blue lights in making the training more realistic and providing useful positive feedback in other areas of emergency response so wondered if it was similar in the rail world.
*I don't like using that term as it implies there are 'fake' wheelchair users around but I meant people who use a chair regularly in their everyday lives as opposed to someone just sitting in a chair during training or an exercise to role play a wheelchair user