Aiming at reducing accidents’ mortality, the Directorate General of Civil Defense has initiated the implementation of specialized first-responders with equipped motorcycles to provide life-saving assistance to the public upon emergency.
The announcement of Live Lebanon‘s initiative was recently made by Bank Audi and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) with the participation of the Ministry of the Interior and the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBCI).
With this endeavor, specially trained Civil Defense teams will be using ambulatory motorcycles to speed through any traffic jams to accident scenes, responding as quickly as possible to emergency calls for help.
These first-responders will be hence able to deliver critical first aid upon arriving at the scene until an ambulance arrives and the medic team takes over. The implementation of the initiative has started. Civil Defense centers in Beirut are being provided with ambulatory motorcycles, six to-date.
As per the Minister of Interior and Municipality, Raya Hassan, these six ambulatory motorcycles are only the first phase of the initiative as 10 similar ones will be provided to Civil Defense Centers across Lebanon.
Minister Hassan also noted that this step “will enable the Civil Defense to respond to any emergency despite the traffic jam that may hinder the movement of ambulances sometimes.”
Her announcement came during the launching of the initiative in a press conference that was held in participation with the Chairman and CEO of Bank Audi group, Samir Hana, the Director General of the Lebanese Civil Defense, Remon Khattar, and the representative of the UNDP, Celine Muirud.
During the press conference, Mrs. Hassan also expressed her hope that this initiative will undoubtedly achieve a qualitative leap towards improving the emergency services in Lebanon, and will thus contribute to saving many lives.
She also declared that they are currently considering a mechanism to use some of the municipal police in cooperation with the governor of Beirut and the internal security forces to control the traffic in Beirut.
That would be particularly necessary during the upcoming summer season that, as per Minister Hassan, is expected to be a promising one in regards to the influx of tourists.
Needless to point out that this initiative grants us a sense of relief and also nurtures our hope for the progress we are observing in our country with so many new ongoing constructive initiatives.
We duly praise the efforts that have been deployed to launch the Live Lebanon‘s initiative of first-responders. It will be, undoubtedly, life-saving to many, reducing the risk of mortality at the scenes of accidents in Lebanon.
