First aid as an important traffic safety factor – evaluation of the experience–based training

First aid is a factor that reduces damage to health and loss of life in traffic accidents. It is therefore necessary to make even the lay population ready to give at least basic first aid. Czech driving schools offer only 4-h first-aid trainings that do not provide the appropriate level of competencies. Our team has designed a new conception of a 16-h experience-based first-aid course and compared its efficacy with the standard 4-h training. Thirty participants were randomly divided into two groups of 15 participants each. The first group went through the standard training; the second group went through the new experience-based training. Three levels of competencies were tested: 1. Knowledge; 2. Skills; 3. Performance in a simulated situation. The competencies were evaluated by a trained observer. A pilot test showed a remarkable difference in knowledge and skills, as well as the competency to act in a simulated situation between the group of people that had gone through the experience-based training and those that had gone through the standard first-aid course. Experience-based first-aid training, focused on knowledge and skills, as well as the psychological set-up, is an effective part of a driver’s education that can help to reduce the numbers of fatalities and serious damage to health caused by traffic accidents. It is an important factor of traffic safety – useful for all drivers – and should become an integral part of all driving (improvement) courses. Further research is still necessary.