The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) 10th Battalion, in association with the Civil Defence Organisation (CDO) of South Central Railway (SCR), conducted a mock drill at Bitragunta railway station on Friday.
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Staff of the Self Propelled Accident Relief Medical Van (SPARMV), CDO, Safety, Mechanical, Signal and Telecom (S&T) and other wings participated in the operation, said Additional Divisional Railway Manager (ADRM-Operations) M. Srikanth, who monitored the drill.
The objective of the mock operation was to train the staff working in medical and accident relief trains in ‘rescuing’ the passengers, shifting them to the nearest hospital and saving their lives. About 150 staff participated in the four-hour long drill, said Vijayawada railway hospital, Assistant Chief Medical Superintendent, Dr. V.B. Manoj.
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On giving the alarm, teams of NDRF, accident relief van, Government Railway Police (GRP), CDO, Railway Protection Force (RPF), medical and other wings rushed to the condemned coach with all rescue devices.
They cut the window grills with hydraulic cutters and the side body of the coach, and rescued the passengers.
The NDRF team demonstrated various techniques used for carrying people such as cradle lift and single-man human crutch and other methods to save the passengers. Chain knot and window rescue with stretcher methods were followed to rescue the unconscious and passengers stranded on the top of the coaches.
Fire, GRP, RPF and the safety department staff gave a demo on the use of fire extinguishers, wet cloth, sodium bicarbonate, giving basic life support, providing first aid to the injured in carvan, said Senior Divisional Safety Officer, J. Srinath.
Officers P.V. Ramana Rao, Dr. P. Sudhakar, Ch. Suresh, Subramanyam, Robin Kumar, T. Sudheer Babu and Pradeep Kumar participated.