00:00 A public demonstration on how emergency services manage serious road traffic collisions has
00:06 taken place in Liverpool.
00:08 When you're involved in the fire and rescue service you don't realise how impactful it
00:12 is. Just engaging with the public who are watching the demonstration and listening to
00:16 the questions they ask and the comments they're making, it does make you realise the impact
00:19 that being involved in an incident like this would have upon the individual.
00:23 The event in Williamson Square highlighted the importance for road safety with an emphasis
00:27 on the impact of drink and drug driving.
00:30 Merseyside Police take this very seriously. We saw the operation they ran over Christmas
00:34 for example where lots of people are out drinking, particularly late into the evening. But what
00:38 a lot of people don't realise is how much of that alcohol might still be in their body
00:41 next morning and so they'll get up to drive but actually not be safe to do so. So we really
00:45 just want to educate the public, get them to think and be aware of how much alcohol
00:49 they've had and actually being aware of when that will leave their system so they are in
00:52 fact then safe to drive.
00:54 The post-collision response demonstration had emergency service attend a dummy collision
00:58 to highlight the work that goes into saving a life.
01:02 The biggest comment is people saying that would be quite scary to be involved in and
01:06 that's why when we do attend something of this nature one of our firefighters will be
01:10 in the vehicle with the casualty talking them through our actions so that they don't get
01:13 spooked and we try and take them as calm as we can because it's already a traumatic experience
01:18 for them.
01:19 The fire service is built around teamwork. Our crews train every day of the year for
01:23 occasions like this and for real life and we hope and we pray that we never have to
01:26 do it in real life but when we do we want our crews to be ready and professional and
01:31 able to do it to the best of their ability because ultimately we're there to serve the
01:33 community.
01:34 They have a training plan that they conform to, we have regular training at our training
01:38 and development academy and all the core skills are regularly tested and exercised so we know
01:44 that our staff are the best and we pride ourselves on being the best fire service in the UK.
01:50 We really wanted to do an event like this just to try and capture the public's interest
01:54 and get them to see the possible consequences of a car crash and we know that we see too
01:59 many road deaths that are preventable and we want to talk to them about drink and drug
02:04 driving and how people need to be responsible when they're in a vehicle because otherwise
02:07 this could be them or somebody else and so we're just really trying to highlight the
02:11 message.
02:12 Last year a strategy focused on driving down the number of road traffic collisions was
02:16 launched. The Liverpool City Regions Road Safety Strategy aims to reduce the number
02:21 of those killed and seriously injured on Merseyside's roads, working towards an overall Vision Zero
02:27 target that aims to ensure that by 2020 there are no avoidable collisions on the region's
02:33 roads.
02:34 We know that so many road deaths are preventable and a lot of that is around behaviour of drivers
02:38 so doing big events like this, engaging the public, engaging the community and having
02:42 all the resources we've got on hand is just a way for us to try and really encourage people
02:46 to think about that and help them play their part so we hopefully will have fewer road
02:49 deaths on our roads.
02:51 The plan is also focused on creating a safer environment for people to travel on foot and
02:55 by bike and more children to walk or cycle to school whilst also contributing to improved
03:01 air quality across the region.
