Volunteers on the front line

Sadly, they are also ones who are up close when bodies are pulled from car wrecks, or when family members have to be told about their loved ones.

Craig Duke has been a volunteer at Shepparton Search and Rescue for about four years.

In that time, he has been called to plenty of car crashes.

Some have been fatal. Others have seen people receive life-changing injuries.

“You never know until you get there (what it will be like),” he said.

“When you get there, you deal with what is thrown at you.”

Mr Duke said he coped with what he had seen by compartmentalising things.

He also tries to stay away from the close-up parts of attending a crash as much as possible, and only goes close when he is called for his skills by other emergency services workers at the scene.

“You try not to see as much as you can,” he said.

A lot of work done by Search and Rescue at crash scenes involves helping to get people who are trapped in vehicles out of them.

“If it is the worst-case scenario and they are deceased, you try and do that in the most dignified way possible,” he said.

Mr Duke joined Shepparton Search and Rescue as a way to give back to the community.

“It’s something practical and useful you can do,” he said.

As someone who has attended many crashes as part of his role, Mr Duke has advice for drivers.

“Just be aware of what’s happening around you,” he said.

“People think they are the only vehicle on the road.

“They have to have situational awareness.”

He also urged people to follow the road rules.

“They’re not suggestions,” he said.

Shepparton Search and Rescue president Nacole Standfield said many crashes the group was called to involved drivers who had not obeyed stop or give-way signs, or red traffic lights.

Ms Standfield has been a Search and Rescue volunteer for 12 years and she said this year had been a little calmer in the number of call-outs the organisation had attended compared to the past couple of years, which she said had been “crazy” in terms of how busy they were.

She said while the Shepparton area had not had as many fatalities so far this year as it had in the past couple of years, she said drivers could not afford to become complacent.

She is worried that people will, and that there could be a spike in fatalities in the region again later this year.

For her mental health, Ms Standfield said she treated her role at crash scenes as just a job that she had to do.

“I’ve seen a lot of fatalities. It does take a piece of you,” she said.

“You recognise yourself as being a different person to when you first started.”

With Shepparton Search and Rescue members, all of those who attend crashes and other callouts are volunteers.

They have jobs or families that they leave to go and help the community.

It is a job they do. But they would prefer to see people being safer on the roads.

“Craig has a job. I have kids at home. I’d prefer to be home with my children and not at crashes,” Ms Standfield said.