WHAT IF?
Recent headlines have revealed a number of mass-casualty events involving vehicles. Notable examples include the 2003 Santa Monica farmers market crash; 2017 attacks in Charlottesville, Stockholm, London, Barcelona, Jerusalem, and Melbourne; the 2018 Toronto van attack; and the attack last November in Waukesha, Wisconsin. The Wikipedia page for vehicle-ramming attacks lists more than 100 separate incidents in the last decade alone, making it clear this type of event is becoming an increasingly common threat to pedestrians. Whether it’s accidental or deliberate, the bottom line is, if you’re not injured, how might you be able to attend to those who are?
The Setup: Imagine you visit your downtown area with your spouse on a Saturday to attend a local farmer’s market. In order to make room for vendors’ stands and the accompanying influx of pedestrian traf fic, two full blocks of the street have recently been cordoned off by city of ficials. The closed-off areas are delineated by thin, waist-high plastic barricades to indicate to vehicles at nearby intersections that this area is of f-limits. As is typical of a Saturday afternoon, there are many shoppers and restaurant patrons walking through the area, in addition to the farmers’ market attendees. Small tables have been set up on the sidewalk near some of the more popular booths, so you and your wife take a seat at one of them to eat a quick meal.
The Complication: After about five minutes of enjoying your food, your day seems to be going well. Without warning, you hear the screeching of tires out of sight from where you’re seated. Patrons in the street begin to turn in the direction of the commotion. The noise of an accelerating engine gets louder. Suddenly you see a pickup truck barreling down the opposite side of the street. It plows through one of the other seating areas, smashing into at least three tables of diners. People begin to scream and run frantically in every direction. The driver reverses course and takes down a mother and child trying frantically to outrun it. The pickup starts coming toward you and runs over an elderly couple before slamming into some of the people on the sidewalk about 10 feet from you.
The vehicle then reverses a second time, accelerates down the street, and runs over at least two more people as it speeds out of the cordoned-off area from the same direction it entered. What do you do? Are there steps you can take to attend to the injured individuals? How do you
