Petition calls for bleed control kits at tram stops amid knife crime fears
A petition is calling on Transport for Greater Manchester to install bleed control kits at tram stops across the city, following an increase in knife crime in the last three years.
The Change.org petition, launched earlier this year, has received more than 900 signatures and is urging TfGM to take action. Campaigners say the kits could save lives by providing immediate assistance in case of serious injuries before emergency services arrive, at busy tram stops across the city.
Campaigners argue that access to bleed control kits should be as common as access to defibrillators in public spaces, adding that passengers would feel safer knowing that immediate help was available.
Bleed control kits contain specialist first aid equipment such as tourniquets, designed to manage catastrophic bleeding. The first publicly accessible bleed control kits in Manchester were introduced in Fallowfield in 2022, and are available in other areas in the city.
Knife crime concerns
The petition follows several stabbings across Manchester recently. According to Greater Manchester police data, knife-related offences in the city have increased over the past three years. Statistics show that Manchester is ranked sixth in England for knife-carrying offences per population, with the equivalent of one in every 275 people found carrying a knife.
There have been a series of stabbings recently near tram stops across the city, such as the Abraham Moss tram stop near Cheetham Hill. This included a 15-year-old boy who was hospitalised with potentially life-threatening injuries following a stabbing in November.
Influential charity backs petition
Image: (The Daniel Baird Foundation).
Dr Lynne Baird MBE, founder of the Daniel Baird Foundation, which advocates for the widespread availability of bleed control kits, has backed the Manchester campaign.
Dr Baird began campaigning after the death of her son Daniel in 2017. She said: “Dan had no help whatsoever – no ambulance, no police. He was left to bleed to death on the street from a single stab wound to his chest.
“I was told that unless bleeding can be stopped immediately, death can occur within three to five minutes. At the time, the first aid kits did not contain the specialist equipment needed to stem catastrophic bleeding”.
The foundation helped to introduce the UK’s first publicly accessible bleed control kits later that year. Since then, more than 30,000 kits have been installed by the foundation worldwide.
Dr Baird said about the Manchester petition: “Many lives have been saved because one of our kits was available.
“Every little helps and I would support the campaign to see them installed at Manchester’s tram stops”.
TFGM response
TFGM have said that there are bleed control kits at staffed transport exchanges across the city.
Spokesperson Kate Green said: “Every staffed transport interchange in Greater Manchester has a bleed kit, and staff can provide access to trauma kits for use in an emergency.
“Our past policy has been to install bleed kits where there are staff trained to use them, but we are open to reviewing this across the Bee Network.
“There are bleed kits near the entrances of some Metrolink stops funded by local interest groups, and we will review whether this is something we want to install elsewhere”.
The emergency bleed control kits, created by the Daniel Baird Foundation, are designed for public use, with their description stating: ‘You don’t need medical training. Each item is chosen to be simple, fast, and effective in the hands of untrained responders’.
The petition remains open, with campaigners continuing to call for TFGM to expand access to bleed control kits across Manchester’s tram network, and to make them publicly accessible.