Car crash simulator assists training
A CrashCar simulator presented to CareFlight Ltd will help save lives across northern Australia.
Image: CareFlight teams demonstrate the CrashCar simulator to its donors at Darwin International Airport (CareFlight Ltd)
A CrashCar simulator presented to CareFlight Ltd will help save lives across northern Australia, the Australian aeromedical charity said. Darwin International Airport (DIA) and its partners raised $30,000 at a charity golf day in August to fund the training rig. It will be based in Darwin for training across the Top End of the Northern Territory and adjacent remote locations. CareFlight’s nurses and doctors will use the simulator to help train rescue and medical volunteers at remote and regional communities in how to initially treat people when they are injured or trapped in a vehicle.
Using manikins as ‘patients’, the education team at CareFlight will use the simulator to train the aeromedical team’s doctors and nurse in advanced treatment techniques that can be applied to stabilise severely injured patients even before rescue while they are trapped in a vehicle. Built on a 4WD frame, it can also be towed over rough roads to training sessions, helping remote community volunteers gain extra skills in the initial treatment of car crash patients until aeromedical teams can fly in to support them.
CareFlight operates the Top End Medical Retrieval Service which provides medical rescue and retrieval services to Territorians across the Top End, on behalf of the NT Government.