Emergency Services in Zambia

On 15 May 2011, there was a news item from the local media about the loss of lives of more than a dozen children in the Zambian city of Ndola.

A hired mini bus, that was carrying some forty children who were going for a Church function, careered off the road and plunged into the Kafubu River.

The Police and the local Fire Brigade were called to the accident scene to rescue the victims.

According to one television footage of the accident, some witnesses who rushed to the scene of the accident were of the opinion that, if the rescue team had acted swiftly, not so many lives would have been lost.

What incensed them was the method that the Fire Brigade officers used to rescue the victims.

One witness claimed that a rope was thrown to the children so that they could climb out of the sinking vehicle !

They expected the officers to have dived into the water and assist the children.

When one looks at the equipment that the emergency services in Zambia have , it would have been suicidal for the Fire Brigade officers to have gone into the water.

The only section of our community that have adequate emergency rescue systems are the Mines and the Military.

There were two similar accidents which occurred on the Copperbelt in the recent past.

A few years ago, there was a heart breaking loss of a Luanshya mother and her children who drowned in their family car. She was apparently trying to drive through a flooded road at a bridge near the Kamfinsa township after a heavy downpour.

The vehicle was swept off the road into the fast running stream. Their bodies were recovered after several hours by the Fire Brigade with the help of a Mine Rescue Proto Team from a nearby Mine.

Recently a car went off the road and plunged into the Kafue river at a bridge on the Mufulira - Kitwe road. It took many days before the car and the body of the driver were recovered by a team of military divers.

Several road accidents have occurred where lives have been lost unnecessarily during rescue operations.

There two reasons to this.

Most people who rescue road accident victims are not familiar with First Aid practice.

There are cases where people bleed to death because there is no one to help them to stop the bleeding. Others die or become paralyzed permanently due to the manner they are transported from the accident scene to the hospital. A person with a broken spine needs a special method of transportation, for example.

One worry is that it takes time for authorities to respond to emergencies or to remove hazards from the roads.

A recent example is that of a Tanzanian truck that overturned at a sharp corner on the Chingola- Kitwe Road very close to the CEC substation at Luano early this year.

The truck, which was carrying a load of dump truck tyres each weighing over five tonnes, apparently overturned after going through a very big pot hole.

Despite the truck being a danger to individual motorists and passengers of public transport vehicles, it took more than five weeks before the truck was removed.

I happen to have been traveling on the road on a near daily basis during that time. I and friend used to cross with a Police traffic vehicle that was commuting between Chingola and Kitwe.

There were several near misses where some vehicles almost rammed into the obstructing truck. The only warning to other motorists were pieces of tree branches spread on the road from either side and some warning triangles which were not easily seen. The crew of the truck were stuck at the place for all that time without any assistance from anybody.

At one time we stopped our vehicle and interviewed the truck crew. They told us that they have sent word via fellow truck drivers to the owners of the truck who was in Tanzania.

Had a fatal accident occurred as result of the obstructing truck, it was going to be high profile news. As long as no accident occurred it was, apparently alright, with the authorities in charge of road safety !

This is a very sad state of affairs which needs urgent attention from all concerned.

What is lacking in our society is the lack of urgency to resolve problems which are under our control.

What comes to mind is the establishment of road safety organizations which would supplement authorities to reduce the accidents on our roads.

In many parts of the world there clubs such as the Automobile Association (AA) which look into the well being of motorists. If I remember well we used to have such an organization in the distant past when I was just a school boy.

There is potential for establishment of motoring clubs that would remove dangerous obstacles from the roads, provide first aid to accident victims and do rescue operations at accident scenes.

The country has a lot of people who are professionals in the field of first aid and rescue operations. If these put their heads together a formidable organization would be formed.

An example would be if each motorist was asked to contribute a regular fee of say, K10,000 per month, towards such an organization on a voluntary basis, it would go a long way towards reducing suffering to the road users.

As more and more people realize the benefits of belonging to such a "club" it would encourage others to join. This would extend even to rescue operations in residential areas where people find them selves in many emergencies.

Some people may not agree with me and say such duties should be left to the existing sytems run by the Government and Local Authorities.

If one can afford to pay, say K50,000 to belong to a drinking social club, why not belong to one which is looking after his own safety ?

What do you think ?