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November 1942. New York. "Nurse training. Hospital preparations for air raids involve the training of street accident units for increased efficiency. Nurses wear coat and skirt that can be put on over uniform in a jiffy." Medium format nitrate negative by Fritz Henle for the Office of War Information. View full size.
I don't know how prevalent they were, but they were definitely needed in many areas owing to the blackout regulations in the early part of the war. Imagine driving in Manhattan traffic with no streetlights, all buildings dark, and it being illegal to turn on your headlights.
I minored in Emergency Health Services in college and somehow never heard anything about street accident units or anything similar during WWII. Can't find anything meaningful about them online either. Seems like one of the many forgotten stories from the homefront efforts in the war.
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