Walking groups such as ours will inevitably experience occasional injuries by trips and falls (e.g. from a stile or on slippery ground) or a disabling medical condition. Accidents may happen on or close to roads or in a town or village, but might occur several miles from either. Walking alone is potentially riskier than in pairs or small groups and appropriate action will depend on the particular situation involved. Alone or with others, it helps to be prepared, know what to do, keep calm, expect help to take quite a long time before it arrives, and keep the injured person as warm and comfortable as possible. Having a fully charged mobile before you set off, and ideally a power bank for top-up purposes (especially if the phone is also used to guide and track the walk), could be a life saver.

In the event of an accident. The walk leader will take charge, make decisions and allocate tasks. If s/he is injured, the group should agree who is to take over. Others will need to assist in looking after the injured person (see comments above), calling emergency services, and perhaps leading the rest of the walk.  Do not move the casualty unless they start to vomit or choke on blood, in which case roll them carefully onto their side keeping the casualty's head, neck and back in line with each other. Sit or lie them on a rucksack or waterproofs to stop heat loss.

If Emergency Services need to be called, first determine your location using one of the following methods.
NB – The person calling 999 must save the location reference before leaving the incident if they need to move away to get a signal.

• The  most accurate (to a 3 metre square) and now most common reference used is the what3words app and we recommend that all members install this on their mobiles. A blue dot and the 3 words at the top of the screen signify the position of the phone.

• Alternatively, using Google Map, a blue dot shows your position (you do not need to download a map).  Touch the screen as near to this as possible and a red position marker will appear. The coordinates for this red marker are shown in the search box.

• GPS devices & Mapping Apps (e.g. Memory Map using "GPS lock") will provide grid references. Check how to use this function if you have not already done so.

Contacting the Emergency Services. Have the information ready, including what happened, details of the injury, location of the casualty, weather conditions and any known medical conditions the casualty has. You will be asked "Emergency, which service do you require - Fire, Police or Ambulance?". Unless you are near to a road, Police is probably best as they will coordinate services such as Mountain Rescue and Air Ambulance. The service (e.g. Mountain Rescue) may need to phone back, so do not use the phone to make other calls.

To make the 999 call, ideally use a phone which has a signal and the most charge. If you need to move to get a signal (or seek help), ideally send at least 2 people. Smartphones can dial 999 using any available signal via, or independently of, a SIM card but it will not be possible for the Emergency Service to call back unless there is a signal for the phone service provider. With a signal, the GPS location will be automatically sent to the emergency response centre (a BT operator in the UK), but if you have moved away, make sure to advise the actual location of the incident.

Continuing the walk. At least one experienced walker must stay with the casualty, not necessarily the walk leader. Options are:

• If time permits and the (possibly new) leader is confident of doing so, to continue the walk route as planned, or with a shortcut if possible.

• Otherwise look on the map to see if there is somewhere closer to head for where the coach can pick you up, ideally on its original route home.

Whatever the decision, contact another walk leader or the coach driver to explain what happened and, if necessary, arrange pickups on the way back for the group and the casualty companion(s).

Other sources. These articles provide further detail which may prove helpful.

Calling Mountain Rescue 

5 Ways a Mobile Phone can save your life

How to setup the Emergency Call function on various phone models / operating systems