THIS week, many in the Eden community, particularly Kylie Poyner’s family, and the friends and families of the other injured teenagers in an horrific accident last Sunday, are struggling to come to terms with the tragedy.
Among those also affected are the emergency service workers.
“I don’t recall anything nearly as serious or as horrific as this,” State Emergency Services local controller John Lacey said.
“Eden is the only SES road crash rescue unit in the Bega Valley Shire. They are all qualified rescue operators.
“I’ve talked to each and every one of them.
“After a day or two we’ll get back together and we’ll continue to monitor them over the coming days.
“Our people will be very, very well taken care of. We have a second-to-none process of dealing with trauma, part of that is just talking among ourselves. We’ll check and self check again.
“The SES has an excellent program called Critical Incident Support...a peer support program run by properly trained people.
“We have access to that 24 hours a day, seven days a week for any incident we attend.
“We do our own initial debriefing after the task and then we go from there.
“If people need help they can do that through me or completely anonymously,” Mr Lacey said.
The NSW Fire Brigade critical incident response unit visited Eden on Monday night to debrief those involved at the crash scene.
The three-hour briefing was delivered to around 14 people at the Eden Fire Brigade station, including firies and ambulance paramedics who attended the scene and a local resident who was one of two people first to arrive at the accident, who were instrumental in giving critical information to the 000 dispatcher, and in assisting two injured passengers from the vehicle.
“The session helped us to understand what to look for when a person is under stress, the signs, the differences in behaviour and what to do if you start to experience those signs or see them in others,” said Eden Fire Brigade chief Zlatco Nemec.
“We hold these sessions when there has been a severe or drawn-out incident like a tanker fire, motor vehicle fatality or major structural fires.
“People commented that they got something out of the session, which is good,” Mr Nemec said.
A veteran fire brigade member and father of two young children, Mr Nemec has attended many major incidents in his 27 years of service.
“The thing that people always ask me is, ‘Is this the worst you have even been involved in?’ When there’s a death involved it is the worst incident, especially when there are kids involved.”
Eden Police Sergeant Scott Blanch is preparing the coroner’s report on the accident.
It will detail forensic information surrounding the cause of the accident, the soundness of the vehicle and a toxicology report.
At the scene of the crash on Sunday, and again in the media on Monday, Inspector Jason Edmunds from Bega Police implored young drivers to look at the stark images from the crash and remind themselves they are not invincible.
“Times like this are a reminder to everyone about the ease with which accidents can happen and the horrendous consequences that can follow,” he said.
“I implore drivers of all areas to be careful on the roads.”
The funeral of Kylie Poyner is likely to be held next week.
Passengers in hospital
SERIOUSLY injured Eden students Ben Halfpenny (13) and Michael Clark (15) of Merimbula, and Tegan Lloyd (15) of Bemboka remain in Canberra Hospital.
Tegan Lloyd, whose condition was still listed as critical yesterday, lost both her legs in the accident.
Ben is a member of the Merimbula-Pambula Bulldogs rugby league football club playing in group 16 and also plays cricket for Pambula’s Blue Heelers.
Michael Clark is also a sportsman, playing for the Merimbula Knight’s under 14s team in the 2008/2009 season.
Tegan Lloyd is a Year 10 student at Bega High School where principal Jenne Gardner has said the school has been left distraught by the news.
Email a friend
Favourites
Del.icio.us
Facebook
Digg
StumbleUpon
MySpace
Reddit
Newsvine
LinkedIn
Kwoff
Twitter