{"id":188719,"date":"2023-11-15T06:22:18","date_gmt":"2023-11-15T06:22:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsneednews.com\/?p=188719"},"modified":"2023-11-15T06:22:18","modified_gmt":"2023-11-15T06:22:18","slug":"pull-up-split-up-start-triaging-inside-the-fight-to-save-lives-in-the-daylesford-tragedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsneednews.com\/world-news\/pull-up-split-up-start-triaging-inside-the-fight-to-save-lives-in-the-daylesford-tragedy\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Pull up, split up, start triaging\u2019: Inside the fight to save lives in the Daylesford tragedy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span>By <\/span><span><span><span>David Estcourt<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/static.ffx.io\/images\/$zoom_0.3267%2C$multiply_0.5855%2C$ratio_1%2C$width_1059%2C$x_412%2C$y_95\/t_crop_custom\/q_86%2Cf_auto\/0ccab9ef0eff82415f75b2b28a2483f28fe7fc65\" height=\"620\" width=\"620\"><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cI won\u2019t ever forget it,\u201d says Daylesford CFA Captain Glenn Webster.<\/span><cite class=\"\"><span>Credit: <\/span>David Estcourt<\/cite><\/p>\n<h3>Save articles for later<\/h3>\n<p>Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.<\/p>\n<p>Standing at the station, facing mass tragedy on Sunday afternoon, Daylesford Country Fire Authority (CFA) captain Glenn Webster was grappling with the fragility of life and the randomness of death.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s always a moment of: this is surreal. It can\u2019t really be happening in our town,\u201d he tells this masthead, hands wrapped around a cup of tea on the back deck of his home just outside of town.<\/p>\n<p>It is almost exactly 48 hours after tragedy struck outside the Royal Daylesford Hotel on Vincent Street, where a 66-year-old driver missed a bend in the road, mounted the curb and drove through patrons enjoying an afternoon drink.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/static.ffx.io\/images\/$zoom_0.183%2C$multiply_0.7725%2C$ratio_1.5%2C$width_756%2C$x_29%2C$y_0\/t_crop_custom\/q_86%2Cf_auto\/05da0040a6dd586961a933c84eca76abc6600c59\" height=\"390\" width=\"584\"><\/p>\n<p><span>People leave floral tributes at the crash scene.<\/span><cite class=\"\"><span>Credit: <\/span>Joe Armao<\/cite><\/p>\n<p>Webster remembers the scene in vivid detail: smashed picnic tables, grass stained with rubber, a light pole obstructing traffic, and the screams of the injured.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere were bodies everywhere and horrific, horrific scenes &#8230; I remember just looking at it, and I took a deep breath,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>Rewind to earlier in the day, to just after 6pm on November 5. Webster\u2019s pager dinged an alert. Something had happened at the Royal in town. The scale of the accident was unknown.<\/p>\n<p>Webster grabbed his uniform, jumped in the car and raced to the station, radio blaring with reports hastily dispensed from Lieutenant Rikki Yanner.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI hear him say multiple eight-threes and multiple injuries. So immediately I\u2019m thinking okay, multiple eight-threes: it means there are dead people,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>He arrived at the station to bring out the rescue unit and bumped into Leanne Yanner, Rikki\u2019s mum and also a CFA volunteer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe was as white as a sheet, and she says there are bodies everywhere,\u201d Webster recalls.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSeeing her face galvanised me because she\u2019s a very calm, level-headed person. Never gets flustered. But she was shocked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s always that few seconds, and then you click, and you think well, it is happening. This is what I\u2019ve got to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>\u2018Horrific, horrific scenes\u2019<\/h3>\n<p>Webster\u2019s orders were brief and clear: pull up, split up, start triaging.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFind someone who is conscious and breathing and stay with them,\u201d Webster ordered his team. \u201cIf they\u2019re not conscious and breathing, as in they\u2019re deceased, move on until you find someone who\u2019s conscious and breathing and stay with them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/static.ffx.io\/images\/$zoom_1.569%2C$multiply_0.5855%2C$ratio_1%2C$width_1059%2C$x_412%2C$y_0\/t_crop_custom\/q_86%2Cf_auto\/29efdd7da5a9497bc6ab5e9e1e37c1738a034f76\" height=\"620\" width=\"620\"><\/p>\n<p><span>Five people were killed in Sunday\u2019s crash.<\/span><cite class=\"\"><span>Credit: <\/span>The Age<\/cite><\/p>\n<p>People from the town came to offer help. Off-duty paramedics, doctors, medical professional ran towards sirens and cries of the victims. He says bystanders, in the face of tragedy, remained stoic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe rescue crew were incredibly focused. None of them shied away from it. None of them stepped away and said I can\u2019t do this,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey did exactly what they needed to do: find someone to be with and stay with them, keep them alive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Four victims died on the soft grass outside the hotel.<\/p>\n<p>Vihaan Bhatia, 11 and his father, Vivek Bhatia, 38, and family friends Pratibha Sharma, 44, and Jatin Chugh, 30, were already deceased when crews arrived. Sharma\u2019s nine-year-old daughter, Anvi, was taken to hospital, where she later died.<\/p>\n<p>Vihaan\u2019s mother, Ruchi Bhatia, remains in the intensive care unit at Royal Melbourne Hospital, while her brother Abeer is being treated for leg fractures and internal injuries at the Royal Children\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n<p>Three other people, a 43-year-old woman from Kyneton, a 38-year-old man from Cockatoo and an 11-year-old boy were also injured and taken to hospital on Sunday. The boy\u2019s mother, a 34-year-old woman from Cockatoo, was not injured and travelled to hospital with her son.<\/p>\n<h3>\u2018Tell my wife I loved her\u2019<\/h3>\n<p>CFA rescuers use a technique called \u201cone trusted voice\u201d. A firefighter will stay with a victim, so they can build a rapport and the victim begins trusting the rescuer.<\/p>\n<p>Victims give dying wishes: oddities that flash through a mind coming to terms with the fact they might not survive.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019ll ask you to do things: \u2018oh my god who\u2019s going to feed the dog?\u2019 \u2026 they\u2019ll say \u2018tell my wife I love her\u2019,\u201d Webster says.<\/p>\n<p>And so it was outside the Royal Daylesford; stay with victims throughout what could be their final moments.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/static.ffx.io\/images\/$zoom_0.3269%2C$multiply_0.5855%2C$ratio_1%2C$width_1059%2C$x_412%2C$y_196\/t_crop_custom\/q_86%2Cf_auto\/cae970d4ab401e1acfc15bc240a00758f47a6ba2\" height=\"620\" width=\"620\"><\/p>\n<p><span>Local police commander Simon Brand and CFA captain Webster.<\/span><cite class=\"\"><span>Credit: <\/span>David Estcourt<\/cite><\/p>\n<h3>\u2018I won\u2019t ever forget it\u2019<\/h3>\n<p>When Webster debriefed his crew he recalled a different incident that claimed two lives in Kingston, about 20 minutes west of Daylesford, a few days after Christmas in December 2019.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the things I actually spoke about in the debrief was the randomness of tragedy and I harked back to that accident,\u201d he explains. \u201c[The family] came to an intersection where five roads come together and the truck was there at that precise moment and &#8230; went through and hit them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe mother and the five-year-old boy were killed, along with the dog that was in the back.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ll never forget seeing what I can only assume was the last moments of [the mother\u2019s] life where the car was upside-down, she\u2019d managed to release herself, and she had turned herself around and she had her hand\u2026 \u201d<\/p>\n<p>He trails off.<\/p>\n<p>What he couldn\u2019t bring himself to say was that in her last moments, the victim had placed her hand on her little boy, who was dead.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/static.ffx.io\/images\/$zoom_0.3269%2C$multiply_0.5855%2C$ratio_1%2C$width_1059%2C$x_412%2C$y_153\/t_crop_custom\/q_86%2Cf_auto\/e47d3a0280daa81097b551619cfa9d35a819158e\" height=\"620\" width=\"620\"><\/p>\n<p><span>The memorial on Tuesday night in Daylesford.<\/span><cite class=\"\"><span>Credit: <\/span>David Estcourt<\/cite><\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn Sunday I worked on a little boy with a Daylesford paramedic. I think he\u2019s about three years old, I think, terribly, badly injured. His mother laying beside him, she was deceased.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>You can\u2019t forget these things, but you can move past them, Webster says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat I do, which is just for me, which I did last night \u2026 if we go to a really bad crash and someone dies, I always go back to the spot.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLast night I waited until all the media had disappeared, and I went to where all the flowers have been piled up at the statue and I made peace. That\u2019s the way I get over it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Get the day\u2019s breaking news, entertainment ideas and a long read to enjoy. Sign up to receive our Evening Edition newsletter here.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<h2>Most Viewed in National<\/h2>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theage.com.au\/national\/victoria\/pull-up-split-up-start-triaging-inside-the-fight-to-save-lives-in-the-daylesford-tragedy-20231108-p5eie3.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By David Estcourt \u201cI won\u2019t ever forget it,\u201d says Daylesford CFA Captain Glenn Webster.Credit: David Estcourt Save articles for later<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188718,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>\u2018Pull up, split up, start triaging\u2019: Inside the fight to save lives in the Daylesford tragedy - 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