A TEENAGER, who had just learned first aid, heroically helped tend to two men who were injured in a two-vehicle smash — including one who was trapped.
Gregor Melville was walking to meet friends from his gran’s house near the junction of North Burnside Street and Dundee Street, Carnoustie, when two cars collided just metres in front of him.
The youngster, who has just started third year at Carnoustie High School, said adrenaline took over as he leapt to help one the injured men.
He said: “The Audi went into the wall beside me and the other car smashed into the wall on the other side.
Opinion: First aiders are heroes
They say everyone has it in them to save a life, but would you be as quick-thinking as young Gregor Melville?
Well done to him for putting his newly-learned first aid skills to the test and reassuring the casualties while medics made their way to the scene.
Of course Gregor’s done his whole community proud and the injured parties will be grateful for his help.
Having a cool head in a crisis is one thing, but would you know what to do if someone was injured and urgently needed your help?
First aid is something that anyone can learn, and there are a number of ways and courses which help to teach these skills in our communities.
Even just a little knowledge could give you the confidence to act quickly and possibly even save someone’s life.
You may hope that you never need to use the skills you would learn with first aid, but if something ever happened you may well be glad that you did.
“I have done first aid training with cadets. I knew what I had to do and just did it.”
Two other people quickly attended the scene, a nurse and a carer.
The three of them then set about making sure that both drivers were in a stable condition and alerting emergency services.
Gregor said that he saw the Audi driver’s head smash into the windscreen before he got out and began to run away from the smoking vehicle with blood pouring from a wound to his head.
He said that the driver in the other car was trapped and seemed to be unable to free himself from the wreckage.
He added: “I just tried to keep him talking. He kept on repeating himself and I tried to distract him from the situation.
“He was complaining that he had pain in his neck, so I just tried to keep him talking until an ambulance came.
“I knew that I had to keep him talking because he couldn’t remember anything about what had happened. He was really confused. I just wanted to help as much as I could.
“I don’t like blood. I almost fainted when my dog was bleeding once, but my instincts and first aid training took over.
“Everyone took turns holding a jumper on the man’s head to try to stop the bleeding.
“I said everyone should take turns because the first aid training warns that you can get tired.”
Police, the fire service and two ambulances attended the scene of the crash, which happened just before 7pm on Sunday.
Gregor left around an hour later to walk home, saying he was worried he would miss his 8pm curfew.
A spokesman for the Scottish Ambulance Service said: “We received a call shortly before 7pm to attend a two-vehicle road traffic accident.
“Two ambulances attended and two patients were taken to Ninewells Hospital in a stable condition.”