La position latérale de sécurité protège la victime.

Because there are two separate feminine singular nouns:

• la position
• la victime

In French, each noun normally has its own article. So la appears once before position and once before victime.

Because the adjective must agree with the noun it describes.

• position is feminine singular
• so latéral becomes latérale

This is standard adjective agreement in French:

• masculine singular: latéral
• feminine singular: latérale

In French, many adjectives come after the noun.
So position latérale is the normal order.

English often puts adjectives before the noun, but French frequently does the opposite:

• une voiture rouge = a red car
• une position latérale = a lateral position

Some adjectives do come before the noun, but latérale is not one of them.

French often uses de + noun where English uses a compound noun or a different structure.

So:

• position latérale de sécurité
  literally = lateral position of safety

But this is just the normal French expression for the medical/first-aid term.

This kind of structure is very common in French:

• ceinture de sécurité = seat belt
• consigne de sécurité = safety instruction
• agent de sécurité = security guard

So de sécurité is not unusual here at all.

Yes. It is a standard first-aid term in French.

Very often, people shorten it to PLS, especially in spoken French or training contexts.

So you may see or hear:

• la position latérale de sécurité
• la PLS

The accent in protège is there to keep the pronunciation correct.

The infinitive is protéger.
When it is conjugated, the spelling changes in some forms:

• je protège
• tu protèges
• il/elle protège
• nous protégeons
• vous protégez
• ils/elles protègent

The è helps show that the vowel is pronounced more openly, like in père.

This kind of spelling change is common with verbs ending in -éger.

It is the present tense, third person singular.

The subject is La position latérale de sécurité, which is singular, so the verb is:

• elle protège
  or
• la position latérale de sécurité protège

So protège means protects.

No. In French, grammatical gender is not always the same as real-life sex or gender.

Victime is a feminine noun, so it takes:

• la victime
• une victime

But the actual person could be male, female, or anyone else.

So grammatical feminine here does not mean the victim must be a woman.

Using la makes it definite: the victim.

This sentence is talking about a specific victim in a first-aid situation, or about the victim in a general instructional sense.

French often uses the definite article in instructions and general statements, for example:

• Le médecin examine le patient.
• La ceinture protège le passager.

If you said une victime, it would sound more like a victim, less specific.

A helpful approximate pronunciation is:

la po-zi-syon la-te-ral duh say-kyu-ri-tay pro-tezh la veek-teem

A few notes:

• position: the ti sounds like sy here
• latérale: the é and è are different vowel sounds
• protège: the final ge sounds like the s in measure
• victime: the final e is not strongly pronounced

A more French-like IPA pronunciation is:

/la pɔ.zi.sjɔ̃ la.te.ʁal də se.ky.ʁi.te pʁɔ.tɛʒ la vik.tim/

Not really any major required liaison here.

For example:

• la position: no liaison
• de sécurité: no liaison
• protège la victime: no liaison

So this sentence is fairly straightforward to pronounce word by word.

Not naturally in normal French prose. The standard order is:

subject + verb + object

So:

• La position latérale de sécurité protège la victime.

That is the normal, correct form.

You could rearrange things only in special styles, such as poetry, emphasis, or very formal writing, but for learners, it is best to keep the standard order.