LifeGuard off-road beach & trail patrol rescue vehicle Ainsdale, Southport, Merseyside, UK. 22nd March, 2015. UK Weather Bright Sunny Day and High Tide as visitors to the beach enjoy a range of activities with Hazardous Area Response Teams (HART) patrolling the waterline and watching over canoeists.


The Hazardous Area Response Teams (HART) initiative was born from a need for ambulance service paramedics to triage and treat patients within particularly hazardous, and/or potentially contaminated areas. Exercise Osiris held in 2003, involving a CBRN incident at Bank underground station in London, highlighted the lack of clinical care prior to decontamination and the potential for unnecessary loss of life and/or increased morbidity. Ambulance personnel have not traditionally worked in the inner cordon (hot zone) of a CBRN incident but have waited for Fire & Rescue crews to bring casualties out of the inner cordon. However, it was recognised that the delays in providing immediate treatment to casualties within the inner cordon could result in unnecessary loss of life. The HART project, funded by the Department of Health, was initiated in 2005 to provide the ambulance service with the capability to work within the inner cordon at CBRN or HAZMAT incidents and other appropriate major incidents. National Context HART forms part of the health response in support of the national capabilities programme being led by the Home Office. This programme aims to ensure that fewer lives would be risked or lost in the event of a terrorist CBRN incident or an accidental release of hazardous materials. Within this, the key objective is to improve CBRN response capabilities towards ensuring that "if a terrorist attack occurs, the response from all concerned will be quick and effective with the result that lives will be saved, and the impact on property and the environment will be minimised". The initiative sits under the Prepare strand of the Government's Counter Terrorist strategy, 'CONTEST'. NWAS HART will provide two of the planned 15 teams across England. The two teams will be based in Manchester and Liverpool working alongside teams in the North East, Yorkshire, East Midlands, West Midlands, the East of England, Great Western, South Western, and South Central.


Size: 2400px × 3600px
Location: Ainsdale, Southport, Merseyside, UK.
Photo credit: © MediaWorldImages / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: -terrain, -wheel-drive, 4x4, activities, activity, ambulance, atv, atvs, beach, big, bikes, blur, blurred, coast, coastal, coastguard, edge, emergency, foreshore, habitat, high-water, honda, horizontal, irish, lifeboat, lifeguard, marine, movement, moving, multipurpose, muvs, nhs, north-west, quad, quad-bike, quadbike, quads, ranger, red, rescue, riders, road, sand, sandy, sea, seaside, service, services, shore, sport, sports, team, transport, transporting, trx35, utility, vehicle, vehicles, volunteer, waterline