At least twenty traffic police officers on Monday commenced a three-day training in first aid in Torit in Eastern Equatoria State.
The training, organized by the South Sudan Red Cross (SSRC), aims to equip the officers with basic skills in first aid management and referrals.
According to the Red Cross Society Torit Branch, the traffic department will be given first aid tools to help them intervene and manage first aid during accidents.
Betty Alphonse, a Blood Donor Recruitment and First Aid Officer at the SSRC told Radio Tamazuj that most traffic police officers do not know how to provide first aid during accidents and that this has led to the loss of many lives.
“We are training 20 of our traffic police, including female officers, in Torit on how they can help and intervene when accidents happen,” she explained. “We want them to know what first aid is and train them in what to do before accident victims or suspects are referred to the hospital.”
The police officers undergoing the training said they did not know how to administer first aid due to a lack of knowledge despite witnessing several accidents.
A trainee, Victoria John Wajo, said she is committed to learning first aid and blood management skills to save lives.
“The importance of first aid after an accident is that it helps save life before being referring the patient to the hospital,” she said. “Before we learned this training, we were using traditional methods like cooling fire burns with water and clothes.”
Colonel Leonard Peter John, the Eastern Equatoria State Traffic Police Director of Operations, lauded the Red Cross for training his staff and said they will henceforth save lives.
“We are very happy with the first aid training Red Cross is doing because it is crucial for traffic police officers,” he said.
Col Peter however said that his department lacks vehicles to respond to emergencies and expeditiously transport accident victims to the hospital.