Kirkwall Fire Station to host road safety open day

Tragic loss of life on the roads has a “long-lasting impact" on emergency services staff

“All incidents that involve the tragic loss of life have a lasting memory for members of the emergency service and the community. I find it difficult to single out any one particular event that I have been involved in, I can honestly say that each one of them is logged in my memory dating back over 20 years.”

Those are the words of Scottish Fire and Rescue Service Orkney District Commander, Danny Gall, who has both professional and personal reasons behind a hard-hitting road safety campaign being rolled out in the county this year.

He said: “I lost my best friend to a driver that was under the influence of drink and/or drugs, someone I was best man to at his wedding, someone that I am godfather to his daughter.

“All he did that Sunday evening was to take his dog for a walk, something that he used to do with his two young daughters. I constantly think about that event, as I was off duty that night but in my professional capacity could I have made a difference?”

He hopes that an open day at the Kirkwall Fire Station on Saturday 3 August, from 11am-3pm, will not only educate folk but also drive home some basic, but vital, road safety messaging.

The fire service – will be dealing with a mock road crash at 12 noon in the Burgh Car Park. Although this scenario will be staged for the public to come along and witness “casualties” being removed from a damaged vehicle, the scene and the onward ramifications is all too familiar for some. Danny will be giving a narration of what is happening during the vehicle casualty extrication.

A professional with the Fire Service for 23 years, Danny says it is impossible not to be impacted by attending serious and, sometimes fatal, road crashes.

“I have attended many road traffic collisions over my years in the service, all with greater degrees of seriousness, most certainly all of them impacted the individuals and crew members personally.

“As firefighters we are trained to resolve road traffic collisions, unfortunately some of these have very sad outcomes. We conduct a professional service, personally I go into task focused mode, trying to carry out my job professionally to the very best of my ability. It's not until I'm away from the scene that I have the chance to reflect on what I have just experienced, trying to make sense of something that makes no sense.”

Ninety per cent of all road accidents are human error and the most common age for people to be killed is males aged from their late teens to early 20s. Lives lost much too soon, and families and friends left devastated forever.

More often than not, the causes of road traffic crashes can be broken down to ‘the fatal five’ - dangerous/careless driving; speeding, seatbelt offences, mobile phone offences and drink and drug driving.

Danny continued: “As a father with a daughter about to turn 17 on her birthday, already with her provisional driving licence, my job makes me think of the what if's, the risks that careless driving can cause, the danger to pedestrians, new inexperienced drivers trying to impress their passengers and what can I do to help prevent her being involved in unnecessary collisions.

“I find myself discussing the "what if's" with her, trying to educate her in the hazards and risks with the hope that she will take it on board and drive to the road conditions, the speed limits and will challenge the drivers to slow down when trying to impress their passengers.”

Having to break the news of the loss of a loved one to a family is one of the hardest parts of the job for a police officer – particularly within a small community where folk know each other.

“Being close to the family and being part of the small community, the tragic event I described earlier sent shockwaves through everyone. There was a state of disbelief in what had happened, the wish that we could rewind the clock, almost bury our heads in the sand wishing it had never happened.

“Following the disbelief came the feeling of anger towards the driver and her family, this went on for many weeks and months after. If I'm honest even now, over ten years since that tragic event happened, I don't feel these feelings of anger have truly left us.”

Folk can also get involved themselves and take part in CPR training and a virtual reality headset to see how it feels to be driving while under the influence. It is hoped that there will be colleagues from the HM Coastguard and RNLI also on hand.

Members of the public will have the chance to see inside the Fire Station, a fire appliance and ask any questions of the personnel there – maybe you have considered becoming an on-call fire fighter – there's no better chance to see what’s involved and the roles available locally.

Free goody bags will be available.

There will also be a road safety event held during September for S5 students at Kirkwall Grammar School and Stromness Academy and S4 pupils from the Junior High Schools around the time that they will be embarking on their journey into driving. More details to follow.

The Council’s Road Safety Officer, Yvonne Scott, said: “We want to try and drive home road safety messaging and instil good habits in our drivers right from the start. But it’s never too late to change bad behaviour before it’s too late.

“Events such as this really do help in driving home the message of the ramifications of careless and dangerous driving on our roads. Danny’s professional and personal story really does hit home at just how devastating poor, irresponsible and illegal driving can be. Lives that have been devastated forever unnecessarily.

“We know that road safety campaigns work so it’s important to keep up the momentum. Please come along and support the event.”