As practitioners and safe road users, our goal is to stop crashes from occurring in the first place. We do this through the Safe System Approach. Of the system’s five elements, post-crash care is the final safety net.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Office of Emergency Medical Services, 911 dispatched EMS to 1.5 million crashes in 2022. Of the 42,514 people that died in traffic crashes, 42 percent of those crash victims were alive when first responders arrived at the scene. Additionally, death rates increase by 3% for every minute medical response is delayed, which is especially critical in rural and Tribal communities.
The Safe System Approach’s post-crash care element affirms the critical role of first responders and others to save lives after a crash has occurred. After a crash, the first hour (often referred to as the golden hour) is when life-saving medical care can be provided.
But in rural and Tribal communities there are many challenges that preclude receiving the necessary medical care within the “golden hour.” These include, but are not limited to:
It’s also important to note, though EMS provides immediate life-saving services, it is not universally designated in the U.S. an essential service. This lack of designation can lead to financial challenges for EMS providers and affect their ability to effectively and innovatively serve communities.
Over #RRSAW2025, we will explore the various collaborations and strategies of post-crash care that can reduce fatalities and serious injuries and get everyone home safely.
For Rural Road Safety Awareness Week (RRSAW), we are exploring what practitioners and the general traveling public can do to promote the success of post-crash care and save lives on our rural roadways.
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The National Center for Rural Road Safety provides coordinated, multidisciplinary, scalable, and accessible safety resources in order to empower rural road users to accelerate road safety improvements and save lives.
