A healthcare products supplier is campaigning to raise public awareness of how to stop life-threatening severe bleeding after accidents on our roads.

Pharmaco Emergency Care's Stopping the Bleed New Zealand campaign is drawing attention to the speed at which accident victims can die from loss of blood, before emergency services arrive: In as little as three minutes, if a major artery is severed.

Last year NZ saw its highest road toll in a decade, with 380 people dying as the result of crashes – some of them, Pharmaco believes, as a result of severe bleeding.

Pharmaco product and clinical standard manager Pip Cotterell says there is the potential to save lives if the right training and tools are close at hand: "It is highly likely you may come across a bad road crash at some point in your life, so raising awareness about how to provide immediate first-aid is incredibly important.

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