being a retained FireFighter in Suffolk
RTC, Worlingham, Beccles – children injured
You just couldn’t make this up…
School children get knocked down outside a church where the funeral is taking place of a driver killed in an RTC. It’s crazy, yet it happened this afternoon in the village of Worlingham, near Beccles.
I was at home when my alerter went off and so I was across at the fire station pretty sharpish. The tip sheet just said that we were off to an RTC outside Worlingham Church. However word was filtering back that children were involved and there were multiple casualties.
As we made our way through the busy afternoon traffic we heard a fourth pump being mobilised to the incident – a sure sign that things were pretty bad. The Fire Service had received so many repeat calls that they had not waited for the first pump to get there and had made up for Ladder 2 from Normanshurst.
So all three pumps from Normanshurst and the Beccles pump were converging on sleepy Worlingham – not to mention ambulances from far and wide.
We pulled up near the Lych Gate to be confronted by the sight of so many young children injured on the path and grass verge. Paramedics, firefighters and mourners from the funeral were all pitching in to assist the casualties.
Gradually the whole area became swamped with emergency services – 6 road ambulances, Rapid Response Vehicles, emergency doctors and the crew from the Air Ambulance.
The walking wounded were looked after by a couple of firefighters whilst the rest of the children were moved to the back of the churchyard to be comforted by members of staff.
The police helicopter ferried in a medical team, presumably from the James Paget Hospital in Gorleston and the RAF Air Sea Rescue helicopter from Wattisham pitched in too.
As time wore on more and more people were gathering at the cordon. And then, pushing their way to the front, were the distraught parents, their faces full of anguish as they searched for their child, anxious for news yet fearing the worst. Firefighters or a police officer leading them to a waiting ambulance or reuniting them with a shocked and tearful child.
And suddenly it was over. The ambulances were all heading off to hospital, the Police were starting their accident investigation work and we were ready to head home.
I just can’t get over how surreal the whole thing was. There were small children lying injured on the road side and in the background the sound of hymns being sung at the funeral…
And finally, I’m very quick to criticise teachers but I was impressed by the way they dealt with, what must have been for them, such a traumatic and heart-rending experience.
Thank God these incidents are few and very far between.
– IAN CARTER (www.accessiblewebsites.co.uk)
