Members of the Dubbo Volunteer Rescue Squad are hoping they can enjoy an uninterrupted Christmas with their families because it means there haven’t been any serious accidents.
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Dubbo VRA captain David Chenhall said it is always terrible to see accidents that claim lives or leave people seriously injured but holiday times are even worse.
A time that should be the happiest of the year can turn into one of the worst for a family and it also takes a heavy toll on emergency services personnel.
“Our families understand that we can be called out but for us it is seeing that carnage. It doesn’t matter whether it is police, ambulance, firies or us, all accidents are bad but Christmas of all days is terrible,” Mr Chenhall said
Mr Chenhall said there hadn’t been any fatal accidents over Christmas at Dubbo for a few years and he hopes that can continue.
“We have had a few years where we haven’t had accidents at Christmas but unfortunately that means the next bad Christmas is getting closer,” he said.
“We’d like to see motorists take advantage of driver-reviver and let’s keep the fatalities down. We are around 35 deaths up on last year so if we can keep that down at Christmas, that would be good.”
Likie so many organisations, the rescue squad will operate with a smaller pool of people of Christmas but have enough people ready for any emergency.
“There are about five of us who are definitely staying in town. For our core response we only need two, depending one what the job is, but I like to send five or six people out,” Mr Chenhall said.
The crew also makes other sacrifices to help those who might need it. There is a zero-alcohol policy for anyone who responds to an emergency so those who commit to being on call during holiday periods don’t drink.
Vice captain Luis Perez-Mora said for those people who were staying in Dubbo for the holidays, they could do their bit by not drinking and driving.
“If you are going out celebrating with family and friends have a plan B,” he said.
“It’s just not worth the risk of driving.”