Inter-agency cooperation of the emergency response services


All emergency services must work together in order to save and preserve life. In any incidents it is the police that are usually the first on the scene and it is then down to them to decide what other services are needed. If the police are attending to a road traffic collision they will more than likely need the ambulance service and the fire service. The police will cordon of the scene to the public and begin trying to asses the situation and start to build an idea of what has happened, why its happened and if there is anybody to blame. In order to do this they may bring specialist units in such as road collision investigators. The ambulance service will obviously be needed in order to care for anyone who has been injured in the incident and preserve life by providing essential first aid and getting the injured to hospital as quickly and as safely as is possible. The fire service may be required in order to cut people out of cars, in serious crashes sometimes the car doors will be rendered useless so the services need to find another way in, this is usually don by the fire service using a special tool to make precise cuts and basically peeling off the roof of the car. All of these services will work in cooperation in order to save lives, investigate the scene and to return the affected area to normality.



As well as the emergency services there are a number of other services that may need to be informed of the incident. If a van working for a courier company has crashed for example health and safety executives will be informed. This is so they can investigate whether the driver crashed because he couldn't concentrate on driving due from being over-tired because he was being forced to work unreasonable hours. Also environmental health officers could be called in if there are any kinds of spills that pose a threat to contaminating waters / rivers.

Also utility companies may need to be informed of the incident for example a road traffic collision could result in a gas or water pipe being burst or an electricity pylon could become damaged, in the event of this happening the crew on scene must let the necessary company know so they can take care of the situation.

It is essential that all these services wok well together to save lives and help in the return to normality after an incident has happened.