Permian Strategic Partnership, Permian Road Safety Coalition Partner to Provide Critical Equipment for First Responders in Texas, New Mexico
MIDLAND, TX (December 17, 2020) — In an effort to reduce vehicle crash fatalities across the Permian Basin, the Permian Road Safety Coalition (PRSC) and the Permian Strategic Partnership (PSP) have partnered to provide almost $1.1 million in life-saving equipment to first responders in 22 counties across West Texas and Southeast New Mexico. The partnership with PSP allows PRSC to expand its “First Responder Life-Saving Equipment Initiative†that began in early 2020 with PRSC’s initial investment of over $250,000 in donated equipment.
We are thrilled to partner with the Permian Road Safety Coalition to provide this necessary equipment, said Tracee Bentley, CEO and president of the PSP. Road safety is a critical issue in the Permian Basin, and while we continue to work to reduce incidents through better awareness and improved infrastructure, when incidents do occur, we want to ensure our first responders have the best equipment possible in order to protect our citizens.
This significant contribution by the Permian Strategic Partnership will help the PRSC place critical emergency response equipment and training in the hands of our region’s first responders that will, in turn, have the potential to save lives on rural county and state roadways in the Permian Basin, said Scott Scheffler, executive director of the PRSC. We are honored to have played a part in this initiative from the start, we want to thank all of the first responders and local government leaders for their leadership throughout this initiative as we all work together to save lives on our Permian roadways.
First responding agencies, many of whom are staffed by volunteers, have limited infrastructure and resources that were designed only to respond to local jurisdictions with small populations of less than 10,000. It is not unusual now to see responders travel over an hour by road to respond to calls for assistance. The increase in call volume, coupled with longer response times due to extra miles driven, has the potential to delay emergency services responses and, in some cases, delay the delivery of critical emergency response tools required at the scene.
Through this partnering, emergency equipment such as battery powered “jaws of life, medical supply kits, fire extinguishers, mobile lighting tools, and rescue helicopter landing zone kits, and related training will be provided to first-on-scene local responders or prepositioned closer to the remote activity areas in need of these resources. This life-saving equipment will give first responders a fighting chance to aid victims and prevent fatalities in otherwise survivable crashes while waiting for additional help to arrive on the scene.
First responder agencies receiving this equipment are located in the counties of Andrews, Borden, Crane, Culberson, Dawson, Ector, Gaines, Glasscock, Howard, Loving, Martin, Midland, Pecos, Reagan, Reeves, Terrell, Upton, Ward, Winkler, and Yoakum Counties in Texas; and Eddy and Lea Counties in New Mexico.
Equipment will be distributed throughout 2021.