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On a ride-along with an Australian ambulance

By Bellinda Kontominas
Sydney Morning Herald
Copyright 2007 The Sydney Morning Herald

BOTANY, Australia — Shattered glass is sprinkled like icing sugar across the highway. Thick rubber skid marks snake towards the side of the road where people wander between cars which are strewn like toys on a play- mat. A white four-wheel-drive is resting on its roof, the front end crumpled, the windscreen smashed in.

It is a typical Friday night and the Ambulance Service of NSW is on the scene within minutes of a multi-vehicle accident on Southern Cross Drive at Botany. Miraculously, all the passengers in the four-wheel-drive and three other cars walk away from the pile-up.

However, Scott Webster, a paramedic, and the ambulance officers Nathan Williams and Neil Hargreaves must begin the difficult task of sorting those who may have been injured from the dozen or so Good Samaritans who have pulled over to help.

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