We don’t want to meet by accident

ST JOHN Ambulance has been proudly serving the Territory community since the 1970’s as an ambulance service, and for over 50 years as a volunteer service.

They are an integral part of Territory history and have unfortunately witnessed more than their share of road accidents and fatalities during this time.

Many of those crashes could easily have been avoided with sensible, preventable measures.

Emergency services often refer to safety slogans like ‘always wear a seatbelt’, ‘stick to the speed limit’, ‘don’t drink and drive’ and time and again, these messages are ignored.

They are out there for a reason.

Take a minute to think about our often unsung heroes, the paramedics, police, fire and emergency service personnel and the emergency department doctors and nurses who have the unfortunate task of dealing with the aftermath of these ignored messages.

St John Ambulance NT received over 50,000 calls to their emergency 000 call centre last year, resulting in the transport of almost 37,000 patients.

That equates to about one in six Territorian’s requiring ambulance transport to hospi- tal. This is a statistic that cannot be ignored.

All Territorians are urged to think about road safety, such as driving to the speed limit, wearing seatbelts and not driving intoxicated. It could easily be one of your loved ones that St John Ambulance are called upon to transport.

Look out for their emergency vehicles; moving out of the way can save precious seconds.

People are depending on you to give them every second possible.

Stay safe on our roads, show consideration for our emergency services personnel and don’t let us meet them by accident!