FRV's major expansion of Road Crash Rescue Support training

Fire Rescue Victoria (FRV) has recently expanded its Road Crash Rescue Support program to firefighters in metropolitan areas as part of its ongoing commitment to be a world-leading fire and rescue service.

This National Road Safety Week, FRV is reminding the community of the devastating impacts of road crash rescues, not only on patients but first responders and bystanders.

Every day, FRV firefighters attend road crash rescues and other technical rescue operations.

Our crews are highly-trained and use specialist equipment and tools such as the ‘jaws of life’. This equipment is used in complex transport and industrial incidents, as well as rescues.

Since late March, approximately 300 additional firefighters have completed Road Crash Rescue Support (RCRS) training.

In the next few years, this training will be undertaken by about 2,000 operational firefighters.

The program equips firefighters with vital skills when responding to road safety incidents including collisions and rollovers, such as stabilising vehicles, glass management, and providing early access to patients for Ambulance Victoria paramedics and other medical and trauma-response professionals.

RCRS also trains firefighters to extricate patients at the direction of Ambulance Victoria from vehicles in life-threatening situations when every second counts.

The recent expansion of RCRS training will achieve uniformity within Fire Rescue Victoria (FRV) and improve community safety right across the state.  

Based at the FRV rescue training facility in Derrimut, the RCRS program is run by five instructors, an administration officer and a Coordinator.

FRV has eight heavy rescue vehicles capable of extricating patients trapped in motor vehicles along with 44 primary appliances at 38 locations fitted with road crash rescue support RCRS.

FRV is soon to welcome a further 12 pumpers equipped with road crash rescue support capability into the fleet.

FRV estimates it will respond to more than 7,000 motor vehicle accidents by the end of the 2024/25 financial year, with more than 1,200 expected to require a heavy rescue vehicle response.

Figures like these reinforce the importance of FRV’s Road Crash Rescue training program.

National Road Safety Week runs from May 11-18.

Each year, approximately 1200 people are killed and another 40,000 are seriously injured on Australian roads.

Traffic injury is the biggest killer of Australian children under 15 and the second-biggest killer of all Australians aged between 15 and 24.

Quotes attributable to Deputy Commissioner Mark Kennedy.

“The expansion of Road Crash Rescue Support training to our metropolitan crews will result in the upskilling of our people regardless of where they are stationed and improve service delivery to all Victorian communities."

“There has been fantastic buy-in from crews so far with genuine excitement and a lot of positive feedback.”

“Firefighters do so much more than just put out fires, our world class FRV crews provide life-saving medical care as part of our Emergency Medical Response (EMR) program, deal with Hazardous materials and respond to major road incidents.”

“Our firefighters are among the first to arrive at major road incidents and often confronted with distressing and traumatic scenes and know too well the impact of road trauma on the community."

“Programs such as these equip our crews to respond quickly and efficiently to help people on what is often the worst day of their lives."

“Road safety is everyone’s business, and while FRV is committed to training its crews right across the state to respond to road incidents, it is incumbent upon all Victorians to do their part to stay safe and alert on the roads.”