A company that offers hostile vehicle mitigation (HVM), says it’s committed to providing emergency bandage kits as part of every temporary HVM deployment. It’s a result of a partnership with RAPAID, the emergency bandages charity.
The kits, containing military grade emergency bandages, surgical gloves, window stickers and a set of laminated instructions, will be available at every Crowdguard temporary HVM deployment at no extra cost to the customer. Deborah Ainscough, founder and director of Crowdguard says: “Our mission is to protect people and places from vehicle impacts with expert specification and installation of HVM equipment, aligned to a vulnerability, threat and risk assessment. But we cannot protect people from all risks, and we wanted to make sure that, if the worst happens – whether it’s a vehicle attack, a knife attack, an accident or any other type of incident causing heavy bleeding – we have the equipment on site to reduce the consequences and save lives.”
Figen Murray MBE, who has campaigned for Martyn’s Law, following the death of her son Martyn in the Manchester Arena attack, has commented: “So much of what we want to achieve with Martyn’s Law is an approach to risk mitigation that joins the dots between preventing terror attacks and reducing the consequences. That’s exactly what’s happening with this partnership between Crowdguard and RAPAID, and I encourage others to follow this lead with collaboration and joined-up thinking.”
It takes between just two and five minutes for someone to bleed out following a catastrophic injury, and the most recent emergency ambulance (category 1) response figures from the NHS indicate eight and a half minute average wait times for an emergency ambulance in England and Wales.
Alex Chivers, founder of RAPAID adds: “Having emergency bandages available that can be used by anyone without training could mean the difference between life and death for casualties. We know that people on the scene during the Manchester Arena attack did everything they could to help the injured, but they just didn’t have the kit on hand to stop the bleeding until the emergency services arrived.
“Our partnership with Crowdguard will go a long way towards preventing this scenario from happening again, and we are delighted to be working with the company as part of our campaign to make emergency bandage kits available in workplaces and public environments to save lives following accidents, attacks or incidents.”
After donating to RAPAID, a charity that relies on donations to fund production and distribution of the emergency bandage kits, Crowdguard have already received their first RAPAID kits and starting deploying them at events across the UK. RAPAID emergency bandages kits can already be found in black cabs in five UK cities, and at prominent visitor attractions, such as the British Museum in central London.
Travis Frain BCA, National Chair of the UK Counter Terrorism Youth Advisory Group is a survivor of the Westminster Bridge terrorist attack. He adds: “Our goal is to make emergency bandages as commonplace as defibrillators and fire extinguishers,” Alex adds, “to improve outcomes for injured people whenever, and wherever bad things happen. It’s brilliant that Crowdguard have chosen to extend their mission to protect people to include our kits and we’re confident that our partnership will not only boost safety, but awareness too.”
