Abstract
One of the most common causes of death for victims of a road crash is anoxia – a lack of oxygen supply – caused by a blocked airway. On average, it takes less than four minutes for a blocked airway to be fatal. Even in areas with highly structured emergency care, the norm for ambulance response to a road crash is ten minutes. Many people will die if nothing is done to correct the slow response time to anoxia. The application of first aid techniques, in particular the proper positioning of the victim prior to the arrival of the emergency response teams, can mean the difference between life and death in a road crash. (Author/publisher)