A while ago I saw a documentary about air crashes (possibly called Black Box, possibly on Channel 4).
It said that for many years the British emergency plans for air crashes were based around the Staines ir crash of 1972, where the public got in the way, stopped their cars to see what was happening and attempted to pick up souveniers to take home. As a result of this planning for such emergencies included a bit on keeping the public away from the area, and making sure that roads were kept free for emergency transport to use.
This changed when a plane crashed near Kegworth on the M1 in 1989. Here passers by proved to be usefull (people with medical help gave first aid, random people directed traffic and assisted the police) to enable the overstretched emergency services to make the most of a bad situation. Since then (allegedly) some disaster plans allow for the public to show a certain amount of common sense and a willingness to do as their told by authority figures (e.g. the police).
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timeasmymeasure
The reverse is sometimes true.
Date: 2004-09-30 07:45 am (UTC)It said that for many years the British emergency plans for air crashes were based around the Staines ir crash of 1972, where the public got in the way, stopped their cars to see what was happening and attempted to pick up souveniers to take home. As a result of this planning for such emergencies included a bit on keeping the public away from the area, and making sure that roads were kept free for emergency transport to use.
This changed when a plane crashed near Kegworth on the M1 in 1989. Here passers by proved to be usefull (people with medical help gave first aid, random people directed traffic and assisted the police) to enable the overstretched emergency services to make the most of a bad situation. Since then (allegedly) some disaster plans allow for the public to show a certain amount of common sense and a willingness to do as their told by authority figures (e.g. the police).