Category: Medics In Action

Action photos of paramedics and other ambulance workers at an incident or on an exercise

River Rescue Exercise (2017)

River Rescue Exercise (2017)

A large tree has fallen onto a river cruise boat in this exercise. There are multiple casualties and the only way to access the scene is by river.

First on the scene, around 20 minutes after the 999 call, was a fire service rib. One firefighter boards the cruise boat to triage casualties while his two colleagues search the river for casualties that have fallen overboard.

More emergency services respond to the major incident. Ambulance HART (Hazardous Area Response Team) personnel are joined by more fire and rescue teams as well as dedicated water rescue teams.

Seriously injured members of the public are tended to while uninjured and walking wounded are evacuated using the fleet of small ribs.

A makeshift reception centre is set up a few hundred metres downstream from the incident scene. Casualties are transferred from the boats onto land. It is the nearest road, so all road going emergency vehicles are parked up there.

Fire service vehicles in attendance include rescue pumps, Land Rovers and an incident command unit.

The major exercise attracted media attention, including a film crew who were embedded with the ambulance HART team for a year. Footage was used on the 2018 series ‘999 Rescue Squad’ shown on the W Channel.

Road Accident



Road Accident (2007): Here we look at medics working alongside the other emergency services at a major road accident. This is an exercise that was carried out in Durham in May 2007. Casualties were provided by St. John Ambulance and local colleges and universities.



NK03 GWP is a North East Ambulance Service Ford Focus rapid response car. It has been abandoned by the roadside with its blue lights flashing as the crew has left to deal with multiple casualties.



NEAS incident support vehicles soon arrive, one towing a trailer. These secondary response vehicles carry large amounts of equipment, and in this instance their inflatable tent is required.



Quickly inflated, the tent is used as a triage shelter to assess casualties and prioritise them.



Due to the seriousness of the collision, one of the Great North Air Ambulances (G-HEMS) is called. Here it is landing with among the emergency vehicles and triage shelter.



Air ambulance doctors are shown here with Durham and Darlington Fire & Rescue extricating a driver impaled in the drivers seat of the van.



Careful coordination is needed to gently remove the windscreen and roof and then extricate the seriously injured casulaty.