First responder Andrew Fergusson has attended more road crashes than he cares to remember during the past couple of decades. Photo / Tania Whyte
First responder Andrew Fergusson has attended more road crashes than he cares to remember during the past couple of decades. Photo / Tania Whyte
Northlanders are being encouraged to ‘be a road safety hero’ durings Road Safety Week, which runs from May 20 to 26. The Advocate is recognising the efforts of those heroes who help make our roads safer.
Critical care paramedic Andrew Fergusson says he’d be happy if first responders like him never had to attend serious and fatal crashes.
“On reflection, most of them could have been avoided. I have seen too many families and those who survive such crashes feel the impact for years.
“The reality is no one leaves the same person they were before,” said Fergusson, who joined the Northland Rescue Helicopter Trust in 2014.
He started in the military before taking up a career with the ambulance services and the trust.
Another incident he attended involved a car that had crashed into a parked truck.
“In this case, speed was found as the contributing factor.”
The paramedic remembers joining other first responders in pulling out a man trapped under the crashed vehicle.
While the other two occupants including the driver of the vehicle died on impact, he described rescuing the passenger as a “surreal experience” and “something that no one needs to go through again”.
Despite their best efforts, the man died from his critical injuries at the scene.
Fergusson said when attending such crashes, their first move was to “size up” the scene and accordingly put their resources to use.
The Northland Rescue Helicopter on a hilltop paddock above the crash scene in Waikare Rd in 2022. Photo / Peter de Graaf
“We usually deal with stuff that is time-sensitive and scenes that can get overwhelming. The victims after all are somebody’s parent, sibling or friend.
“My personal trick is to remove the human factor and look at them as someone who needs to be treated. The last thing you want is to lose objectivity and not do your best to save the person(s).”
He credits good guidance during his formative years and able support from his workplace for allowing him to keep his emotions in check.
Howver, he was aware of some of his colleagues who admitted having nightmares and not coping well with their mental health after attending such distressing incidents.
Having a military background, he said it was a widely accepted fact that the stress levels of emergency medical service personnel were similar to that of any frontline military officer.
“We usually have to respond to several jobs daily with different stress levels. So, we must keep an operational tempo to provide the best service.”
Fergusson said what was interesting about his job was that no day was the same because he attended a variety of call-outs.
He could visit a crash site, treat and transfer a medical patient on certain days and then be off to a search-and-rescue mission on the others.
The paramedic asks Northlanders to be mindful when they get behind the wheel. Paying attention, not speeding and avoiding driving under the influence was crucial for road safety.
Avneesh Vincent is the crime and emergency services reporter at the Northern Advocate. He was previously at the Gisborne Herald as the arts and environment reporter and is passionate about covering stories that can make a difference. He joined NZME in July 2023.
