General News
1 October, 2025
Cobden SES passes accreditation with flying colours
THE Cobden State Emergency Service (SES) have completed their road safety accreditation, keeping them online and the community safe.
Assessors from the region and state came out to Cobden on the night of Wednesday, October 24 to assess the Cobden SES unit by assigning them a scenario to work through like a real road crash incident.
For the scenario to take place, the unit had been given a car with a dummy patient trapped inside to save.
Deputy controller Sue Sartori said they had to treat the scenario just like real life.
“The assessors create a scenario and we have to go off in the truck as we would normally going to a scene and it will give us some idea,” she said.
“Then when we get to the car, the patient, which is a dummy, will have something on their front letting me know, because I’m the first aider, what their injuries are, so I have to treat them accordingly.
“We have to assume Ambulance Victoria (AV) isn’t on scene.
“Then when the AV person, who is one of the trainers with a label on, does arrive, I have to pass on what the patient is going through and they’ll let us know how they want the patient out of the vehicle.
“It’s all testing our skills and making sure that we’re good enough as a government approved, road crash crew.”
Ms Sartori said to stay accredited, the unit had to complete the assessment every three years, and they had two new members going through it for the very first time.
“We have to do the accreditation every three years, unless we fail, then they’ll come back in six months or so and retest us,” she said.
“In order to create a team, there has to be six of us and only two have to be personally road crash accredited, but we’ve got four in the team who are and we’ve got two new ones.
“It’s really good experience for them because this is something, for their SES career ongoing, that they’ll be going through all the time.
“Also, they’re learning about the basic skills, because all road crashes are completely different.
“The service has established a way of testing us to see if we are up to scratch as a unit and this is what they’re doing tonight is a basic scenario to make sure that we’ve got the skills needed.”
The unit passed with flying colours after successfully rescuing their patient well within the provided time of an hour and 20 minutes.
Read More: Cobden