Fire Service welcomes Driving Change Seminar

Photo Caption - Pictured at the Driving Change Cross Border Road Safety Seminar are (l-r) Ian McQuitty, Public Achievement - Driving Change Project Manager, Christine McGuire, Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety, Eoin Doyle, Assistant Chief Fire Officer, Northern Ireland Fire & Rescue Service and Finian Joyce, Chief Fire Officer, Leitrim Fire & Rescue Service.
 
 
The Emergency Services from both sides of the border on Wednesday 23rd November 2011 attended a first of its kind road safety seminar organised by the Driving Change project, as part of Road Safety Week (21-27 November).
 
Fire, Police and Ambulance Services from NI and ROI are meeting to discuss road traffic collision incident management along the border area where emergency services from both NI and ROI may be in attendance.
 
The Seminar has been organised by Driving Change, the EU funded cross border road safety project.  The border counties have some of the highest rates of road traffic collisions and the nearest responding emergency service could be from either side of the border.
 
Eoin Doyle, Assistant Chief Fire Officer, Northern Ireland Fire & Rescue Service (NIFRS), Driving Change Project Executive Member, speaking on behalf of the NI Emergency Services said - “Today’s seminar gives us a unique opportunity to explore with our colleagues in the emergency services from ROI border counties how we can put in place arrangements to enhance our joint emergency response to road traffic collisions.
 
“Road traffic collisions don’t recognise borders and this is why it is so important for the emergency services in NI and ROI to work together to ensure that we provide the quickest and most effective response to rescuing casualties trapped in vehicles so that they can receive urgent medical attention.”
 
Finian Joyce, Chief Fire Officer, Leitrim Fire & Rescue Service, Driving Change Project Executive Member, speaking on behalf of the ROI Emergency Services said - “This seminar will bring together all of the key stakeholders in dealing with road traffic collisions along the border area and give us an opportunity to explore what measures are required to improve the quality of response of the emergency services at RTCs. It will deliver on one of the key objectives of our Cross Border project”.