FIREFIGHTERS now attend more traffic accidents than fires and rescue more people from vehicles than blazes. The brigade said that excessive speed is the main reason for the accidents.

It is set to become involved in efforts to reduce the number of crashes, injuries and deaths on the roads.

One of many proposals in the brigade’s ‘blueprint’ document to improve current arrangements is that the service will link up with the police and other services in promoting road safety.

‘It’s one of the areas we would like to explore with the police and other agencies to see if we can assist in the promotion of the safer use of our roads because, clearly, we are seeing the end result mainly of crashes due to high speed,’ said chief fire officer Ron Taylor.

‘This has resulted in the brigade having to use powerful hydraulic equipment to extricate the casualties. Given the modern safety construction of vehicles and a low speed limit of 35mph, these incidents should not be as prevalent.’

Last year, firefighters attended 103 traffic accidents, involving 35 injuries and one fatality. Sixteen people had to be freed from wreckage.

While fire brigades have historically had a duty to engage in work to prevent fires and death and injury by fire, the revised emphasis on prevention could be extended outside the narrow remit of just fire.

‘As the modern fire service now rescues far more people from RTAs than fires, it would follow that they could also engage in prevention work in respect of the dangers of the roads,’ said the plan.

When analysing the life risks associated with special-service incidents, the potentially highest category would be aircraft accidents due to the possible number of casualties involved. However, although the potential is high, this method of transport is considered relatively safe, as the actual number of incidents remains extremely low.