The exercise was supervised by Alexander Kurenkov, Head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia, Alexander Avdeev, Governor of Vladimir Region and Gennady Zhilin, Deputy Chairman of the Management Board for Operation and Road Safety of the Russian Highways State Company. Specialists with the Russian Highways State Company and its contracting organizations, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the State Road Police, and the Centre of Medicine of Accidents honed their skills in rescuing people and dealing with the aftermath of road accidents.
During the drill, a few situations were simulated where the motor traffic got jammed due to road accidents. According to the scenario, on the 173 km post of the M-12 Highway in Vladimir Region, a car driver lost control. The car turned over the barrier and ended up in the oncoming lane, where it collided with a passenger bus and a passenger car. People cannot extricate themselves from the wreckages, some of the bus passengers are injured. Traffic towards Moscow is closed off, a 10 km long jam has accumulated down the road.
At the 421 km post of the M-12 in Nizhny Novgorod Region, an accident came about involving two cars, a passenger bus and a fuel tanker. As a result, there was a spill of fuel on the road, with a threat of fire. The injured need medical care. The situation was aggravated by the fact that the delivery of special equipment to the accident site was extremely problematic.
At three other sections of M-12 “Vostok” Highway — at the 91 km in Moscow Region, the 617 km in Chuvash Republic and the 724 km in the Republic of Tatarstan, the teams practiced actions to eliminate road congestion.
The actions of special services proved well-coordinated and efficient at every site. Road workers fenced the accident scenes off and took down the median barrier to route the traffic through the opposite lane. Traffic police officers were directing the flow of vehicles, while emergency response experts were putting out fires caused by the fuel spill. The conditionally injured were given first aid at the scene of the accident and promptly sent to hospital, whereas seriously injured were carted away by helicopters of medical aviation. Next, the damaged vehicles were towed away, the road workers cleared the scenes of conventional accidents, reinstalled the median barrier, and the motor traffic was restored.
Over the course of the exercise, special attention was paid to the procedure for data transmission and arranging interdepartmental interaction. Various courses of actions for all services in case of road jams due to accidents or snow drifts were trained. Since such phenomena are not uncommon for winter, it is necessary to practice methods of prompt assistance to motorists.
The exercises allow not only to perfect the required skills, but also enable experts to fully experience the large scale and significance of their efforts. After all, the most precious thing - human life - depends on their professionalism, responsibility and caring consideration. For a real-life emergency, such training will ensure uninterrupted, safe traffic flow, the fastest possible aid, and, most importantly, life saving.
