Brendan Simpkins

“EVERYONE has the right to return home.”

That is the message from the Dalkeith CFS brigade during National Road Safety Week. Starting on May 16 and running until Sunday, the event highlights the impact of lives lost, road trauma and ways to reduce the road toll.

About 20 per cent of the brigade’s callouts are for vehicle crashes, despite being more widely known for responding to fires.

Of the 489 incidents Dalkeith responded to last year, 98 of those responses were for vehicle crashes – 40 with injuries. Dalkeith firefighters are often the first responders to vehicle accidents.

Firefighter Matt Gaffney has experience as a dual responder after previously volunteering down south with the State Emergency Service.

“One of the biggest things that is a trigger for me is smell, so for my very first deceased road crash rescue was hydraulic fluid,” he said.

“Anytime I smell that, I can draw you an exact picture of what the guy looked like. It doesn’t affect my mentally or emotionally, it just brings that memory back.

“What I do is I try to, as much as I can, disassociate myself with the person, don’t make it personal. It is a person who has passed in a car accident, unfortunately we are there to do a job and you have to get the job done.

“You are going to see things, you are going to feel things. Right then and there, get the job done, but use your mates to talk about it if you are feeling upset.”

Each day of the week has a different theme. Today’s theme (Wednesday) is Move Over, Slow Down, which encourages drivers to take the foot off the pedal and maintain a safe distance between vehicles.

Former Dalkeith captain Clint Marsh said the brigade mostly responded to lower to medium-speed accidents, but are also called to help with higher speed, higher-impact crashes outside the primary response area.

At the time of writing, 43 people have been killed on South Australian roads in 2021. There have been 270 serious injury crashes, resulting in 318 serious injuries.