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Safety simulation aims to make event safer for participants

SINGAPORE — It costs money and time to organise a safety drill involving an ambulance and paramedics, but it was worth the expense for the organisers of Sunday’s TRI-Factor Bike Race, which has attracted more than 2,000 participants.

SINGAPORE — It costs money and time to organise a safety drill involving an ambulance and paramedics, but it was worth the expense for the organisers of Sunday’s TRI-Factor Bike Race, which has attracted more than 2,000 participants.

Yesterday at the Changi Coast Road, Orange Room, the organiser of the event, conducted an hour-long drill comprising three different scenarios: Single-casualty, multiple-casualty and two-casualty sites.

With the safety, medical and race directors present for the drill, a detailed briefing and communication protocol was also established with the medical support team.

While Elvin Ting, managing director of Orange Room, admits deaths at recent mass participation events was on his mind, the main aim of the drill was to tighten the safety protocols for his events.

“The safety of participants has always been the top priority for our events,” said Ting, who spent S$800 to have an ambulance deployed for the exercise.

“We also wanted to ensure that every part of the route is safe for the participants ... and establish an efficient medical evacuation system in the event of a potential mishap.

“It’s only through simulation that we know which areas to improve on.”

Asked whether their objectives were met, Ting said he was satisfied with the simulation results where they managed to reduce the evacuation response time to three minutes, quicker that the five-minute target.

“We will also be conducting a safety briefing for all our volunteers and have conducted training clinics for our participants,” he added.

Orange Room will be conducting safety simulations for the two remaining Tri-Series events this year: The Tri-Factor Run in August and the Tri-Factor Triathlon in September, which have attracted 6,000 and 2,500 participants, respectively.

For Sunday’s event where rides over four categories will be held on a 10km circuit, there will be a medical support system comprising two ambulances, two fast-response paramedics and six first-aiders on hand to attend to accidents.

DANIAL HAKIM

Remaining events in the 2014 TRI-Factor Series

Sunday: TRI-Factor Bike 2014 along Changi Coast Road

Aug 3: TRI-Factor Run

Sept 7: TRI-Factor Triathlon

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