The role of community emergency response teams in transportation disasters

Community Emergency Response

Private sector

Private sector refers to organizations that are run by private groups or individuals. This is sometimes referred to as the citizen sector since it includes organizations that are largely out of government control. This term also encompasses non-profit organizations that are in place to offer emergency services that are critical, for instance American Red Cross and also businesses with resources to contribute. The private sector, both profit and nonprofit, have a role to play when it comes to transportation disasters. The private sector bears a great number of casualties as well as emergency costs, in an event of a transportation disaster and in most cases respond immediately in cases of transportation disasters. These include giving first aid to the casualties on the site of the accident. They also cover transportation costs of the injured from the accident site to the hospitals where they will receive further treatment. The private sector also provides voluntary expertise and support in such emergency cases as transportation accidents. They are also known to be providers of relief services and emergency materials during disasters.

Community Emergency Response Team (CERT)

CERT is a positive and realistic approach to emergency and disaster situations in which citizens make a difference. The CERT training usually helps the citizens to prepare themselves and even their neighbors for an emergency or a catastrophic disaster. Although the emergency services sometimes tends not to be helpful to everyone immediately, it is therefore necessary for the citizens to obtain enough knowledge offered by the CERT course to help them make a difference in saving lives as well as protecting the property of the people affected.

Ways in which CERT benefit transportation disaster response and management

CERT can benefit transportation disaster response and management in many ways; for instance in a scenario in which there is a major transportation disaster involving the crash of a large airliner, the trained CERT team will be in a position of handling the disaster well, given that the team would already have all the available information in regards to what has made the aircraft to crash. The CERT will also benefit the transportation disaster response and management by rescuing people and protecting the scene for further investigations this is because, the CERT team, with the training they have had, will be in a position to know their responsibilities concerning assistance and rescuing of the victims. Because of enough skills and knowledge (training) provided to people from the CERT course offered, the CERT will also benefit transportation and disaster response by giving out first aids, and fire fighting since the teams are well trained on tackling such issues. Organized structure that the CERT teams have also makes it significant for disaster management; the organized structures normally range from a call out roster to particular assigned tasks for the members. The CERT teams are a necessary organization and training groups with each community and are and have been proven worthwhile when it comes to transportation emergency response since the members of the community are more often than not the first to arrive at a scene of accident.