On Monday 10th July 2006, three responders from East
Anglia made their way to Ambulance HQ, Norwich to undertake the first
Blue Light Driving Assessors Course under the watchful eye and guidance
of the East of England Ambulance Trust.
First Response East Anglia has been operating in and around the county
since 2001. The importance of responding to emergency calls requires
members of the 3 teams (RAF Marham, RAF Honington & RAF Coltishall) to
be trained in 'Blue Light Driving' The purpose of the course was to train up 3 existing responders who were
already 'Blue Light' trained to a level where they would be able to
carry out annual assessments & check drives from within their respective
teams. The purpose of the check drives and annual assessments are to
ensure that all response drivers are maintaining safe effective driving
whilst transiting between standby points throughout Norfolk & Suffolk
but more importantly whilst driving at high speed to respond to emergency calls.
The three day course involved extensive driving throughout Norfolk &
Suffolk, with constant driver assessment taking place. Different styles
of driving were observed and each driver took his turn in the assessors
seat to practice observing and critiquing these styles. Highway Code and
Driving Licence checks were also covered throughout the 3 days as this
would play a major part in any subsequent assessment carried out on response drivers in the future.
Using a syllabus devised from existing assessor training packages,
Driver Training Officer Andy Reid devised a 3 day programme. It would
then be down to Paramedic & Driving Instructor Paul Tasker to put the 3
response drivers through their paces. After 3 days and 100's of miles of
assessment drives the 3 Responders were given the go ahead to carry out
the role of Driving Assessor within East Anglian First Response.
First Response East Anglia would like to pass on it's thanks to Andy Reid & Paul Tasker for their support and help in this venture which is the first of it's kind to come into place with a voluntary emergency medical team such as First Response.