Fast Aider
Digital emergency first-response platform connecting people in emergencies with nearby trained and verified first aiders while supporting escalation to professional emergency services.
The product story behind the prototype or platform.
Fast Aider started with a simple question: when something goes wrong, what happens in the gap between an incident being recognised and professional help arriving? The platform is not designed to replace ambulance services. It explores whether a verified nearby first aider can be identified quickly while the incident is escalated through the appropriate emergency channels.
Emergency response involves time-sensitive decisions and large geographic areas. Professional EMS remains essential, but there can be a period between recognising an incident and professional assistance arriving.
Could a verified nearby first aider provide appropriate early assistance while professional emergency services are being engaged?
These figures are included to ground the product story in published evidence. They describe the wider problem context; they are not claims about the impact of the platform itself.
11,485
road fatalities recorded in South Africa in 2025
Road Traffic Management Corporation — State of Road Safety 2025 ↗45%
of road-user fatalities were pedestrians in 2025
Road Traffic Management Corporation — State of Road Safety 2025 ↗48,000+
Gauteng EMS emergency cases responded to from 1 Dec 2024
Gauteng Department of Health — EMS update ↗The problem
Emergencies are time-sensitive, and South Africa's emergency-response system handles a large and varied volume of incidents. The RTMC recorded 11,485 road fatalities in 2025, with pedestrians accounting for 45% of road-user fatalities. Gauteng EMS reported more than 48,000 emergency responses from 1 December 2024, including 7,533 trauma cases and 2,791 accidents. In Limpopo's 2024/25 annual report, EMS recorded a 95.5% achievement rate for rural Priority 1 responses under 60 minutes — showing both the importance of professional EMS and the reality that emergency response operates across large geographic areas. Fast Aider therefore focuses on the possible role of verified community-level first response, not on replacing the formal system.
The product
A digital first-response concept for matching emergencies with nearby trained and verified first aiders, supporting incident information and escalating cases to professional emergency services.
Who it is for
People experiencing emergencies, trained first aiders, organisations and emergency-response stakeholders.
What we're testing
We are testing emergency reporting, location-aware matching, first-aider verification and escalation flows. The prototype is not a replacement for professional emergency services.
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