PASSENGER TRAVEL _ NEWS.
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The Latest Doings and Developments in the Bus and Coach World,
• FIRST-AID EQUIPMENT FOR MOTORBUSES.
Details of the Steps Taken by a Prominent Bud-operating Company To Ensure Safe Travelling
FREQUENTLY an accident occurs in which a life might have been saved had medical attention, or at least first aid, been available within a reasonable time after it had happened. Motor accidents along country -roads come in this category, and on numerous occasions in the past serioas injuries or even death might have been prevented had it not been necessary to rush the victim to the nearest town, dr to bring medical assistance to the scene of the disaster.
Par two reasons the Northland Transportation Co., the bus-operating subsidiary of the Great Northern Railroad of America, have installed. firstaid kits in their buses. The first is the psychological effect which ie created on the driver, and the other is that some day the outfit will some in handy on the road.
The bus company point out that they do not -anticipate accidents to the passengers carried in their own vehicles, but feel that some time one of the buses may perchance be the first vehicle to arrive upon the scene of an accident along one of their many routes in the North Central part of the United States. When this happens it will be the driver's duty to devote his time and first-aid equipment to the victim of carelessness or reckless driving.
So far as the psychological effect on the bus driver is concerned; that is more readily understood than explained, but being close to hand the outfit must obviously stress the need for great caution on the road.
These first-aid kits were designed and built by the Northland Transportation Co. and installed in the various units of their large fleet. The kit box is painted white with a large red cross in the centre. It is made so that it will fit snugly against the side of the bus between the door and the instrument board, the former being so arranged that the contents can be easily reached, either from the inside or outside of the bus. The equipment of the first-aid kit consists of the usual bandages, iodine, tourniquets, scissors, adhesive tape. antiseptic solutions, etc.
Other safety equipment which may be of much use in case of emergency is the. two Pyrene fire=extinguishers which are installed. This equipment is .common to many public-service vehicles, but the Northland Co.' have given much thought to the position in, which the extinguishers are fitted. One of them is placed directly above the first-aid outfit and is accessible instantly either from inside or outside of the bus.
There is a growing belief in America that public-service vehicles should be required by law to carry first-aid outfits. Some day such equipment may be required by law, particularly' as the country's highways are accommodating an ever-increasing volume of traffic.