How should you protect a person who, while driving without his safety belts fastened, has suffered an injury to the face and probably of the neck spine, but is conscious?
Show the correct answer
Correct answer
A. Hold his head and, if available, put on a cervical collar.
Explanation
In the photo, a man in a blue jacket is sitting in a tractor cab, leaning over the steering wheel, with his head resting on his hand. You protect a conscious casualty with a facial injury and a suspected cervical spine injury by holding their head until the emergency services arrive - answer A.
Hitting the steering wheel or the windscreen with the face bends the head back violently, so with such an injury you always suspect damage to the cervical spine. Any movement of the head may then damage the spinal cord and cause permanent paralysis. You place your hands on both sides of the casualty's head, keep it in the position in which you found it and ask them not to move. The Road Traffic Act obliges a person involved in an accident to give help and call an ambulance, so you call yourself or ask someone nearby to do it. Pulling the person out of the vehicle (answer B) is justified only when there is a direct threat, e.g. a fire. "Do not touch at all" (answer C) leaves the person without help - and a conscious casualty will instinctively turn their head.
Legal basis: Art. 44 para. 2 point 1 of the Road Traffic Act (Prawo o ruchu drogowym); Art. 162 § 1 of the Criminal Code