Reader says some responders are just well-meaning people

Letter to the Editor,

The issue: You have just been involved in a car accident and badly injured. 

When the ambulance arrives and uniformed people start to assist you, which of the following would you choose to be attended by: 1. emergency medical-aid people who are highly trained and certified by the state to correctly assess your injuries and transport, or 2. self-dispatched, frothy emotionally correct individuals, with kind hearts?

This is the crux of the problem with CVFSA and Bull Lake Rural Fire District: They have not taken the necessary training from certified instructors to receive certification from the state. 

They may have decades of medical training, but state certification ensures a standard of knowledge. 

It is this condition that necessitates any state certified ambulance service to refuse to do mutual aid with these organizations based upon liability.

Anyone can listen to a scanner and show up at an accident scene. Only state-certified organizations are dispatched through 911. 

If BLRFD self-dispatches to an accident scene and state certified Troy Fire Department transports, then Troy owns all the liability and, hence, leaves the county wide open for lawsuit.

When an individual wearing a uniform shows at a scene, the public has the reasonable expectation that individual is qualified and certified by the state to have a certain level of expertise. 

This controversy has been dragged into smoke and mirrors of emotion. The solution is simple; get qualified trainers and get state certified.

— Rhoda Cargill

Troy