NSW State Emergency Services (SES) Port Macquarie volunteers have won the Director's Shield for the second year in a row at the Australasian Road Rescue Challenge in Dubbo.
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Port Macquarie collected the achievement as the best SES team at the international, multi-agency emergency services competition in Dubbo over the July 27 weekend.
The Port Macquarie team placed eleventh of 21 teams at the competition and was the best of six competing SES teams.
Emergency service personnel including teams from New Zealand and Hong Kong took part in three challenges to cut casualties out of mock motor vehicle accidents.
Port Macquarie Unit commander Michael Ward said the three challenges included controlled, entrapped and time critical situations.
"Each scenario was 30 minutes and the challenge was to see how much a team could do and how well they extricated the casualty out of the vehicle in that time," he said.
"The focus is on the best outcome for the casualty.
"The whole focus of the challenge is about information sharing and raising all skill levels for better assistance in the community."
Teams also took part in a two-member trauma challenge for medical emergencies this year and the whole team were surprised with a new team CPR challenge.
During the challenge all team members were instructed to perform CPR on a rotating basis.
"We were required to perform CPR for a total of 12 minutes, two minutes each team member," said Mr Ward.
"It takes the support of an entire SES unit to send a team to a challenge.
"Port Macquarie can be assured that it has a great SES unit to support the community in times of need."
NSW SES Commissioner Kyle Stewart said he is proud of all the volunteers in the NSW State Emergency Service.
"The community of New South Wales can rest easy knowing that NSW SES volunteers have the right skills and equipment to help them in a car crash rescue," he said.
"We are looking forward to the 2020 Australasian Rescue Challenge."
A New Zealand Fire Service team from Wanaka was the winning team of the Australasian Road Rescue Challenge.
They will compete in the World Road Rescue Challenge next year.
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