[CaptainCrunch]

A few years ago when I lived in Saskatchewan I was driving to a pick up hockey game in the dead of winter in really bad conditions. A van went screaming by us at about 150 km/ hour and I turned to my friends and bet them that we'd see that van in the ditch somewhere ahead.

Sure enough we came around the corner and it was on its side in the ditch. No fire but it was fairly crushed. Being first on the scene I told a friend of mine to call 9-11 and I went to assess the situation.

Of course the woman was driving with her two kids and a now absolutely panic strickened dog.

We got the kids out who were ok, and the dog out, but the driver was concious and lucid but told us that she banged her head on the side window and her neck hurt.

By this time a crowd had gathered. I decided since there wasn't a fire to stabilize her head and neck and not pull her out of the van. Of course some yahoo had hero syndrome and decided to get her out of the van, and I was pushed aside while they manhandled her stupidly out of the van.

The moral of the story is that its ok to intervene in an accident but too many people have images of themselves in the paper with pictures of them carrying the person to safety.

If you don't know what to do, or your not trained in first aid, you do the minimum. You control the scene, you get help and you calm down the victim so they don't move if there's no danger to them by staying put. If the victims not breathing and you don't know recessitation then don't do something stupid that will harm the person more. If the victim has bleeding you control the bleeding with pressure, you don't stupidly apply a tournaquet if you don't know how it works.

Everyone should take the time to take a first aid course in my mind and keep the certification up to date.

But don't be the hero and do too much.