“Platinum-Time” Operation Measures to Reduce Traffic Fatalities 

Jun Lee, and Hyejin Lee 

The Korea Transport Institute, Korea 

Abstract: There is a consensus that adequate trauma management for road casualties following the road crashes is a crucial element to reduce road fatalities. Trauma management consists of two parts, which are initial medical treatment by Emergency Medical Service (EMS) and further treatment by permanent medical facilities. Generally, golden hour, 1 hour after crash, is considered the time limit provided to relevant authorities for trauma management. The paper defines the time limit for EMS as Platinum-time, which means 20 minutes after crashes to realize golden hour in trauma management. It includes activities from reporting road crashes to transporting the casualties to a hospital. The paper describes five steps of EMS by reviewing Seoul Emergency Response System. Additionally, the paper suggests improvement to get Platinum-Time in technical and practical way to relevant authorities such as emergency technicians, police officers and medical center. 

Key words: post-crash trauma, trauma management, emergency medical service, platinum-ten, golden hour