Firefighters conduct serious traffic collision rescue in Liverpool city centre

A public demonstration on how emergency services manage serious road traffic collisions has taken place in Liverpool city centre. The event in Williamson Square highlighted the importance of road safety, emphasising the impact of drink and drug driving.

Merseyside’s Police and Crime Commissioner Emily Spurrell said, “We know that so many road deaths are preventable. A lot of that is around the behaviour of drivers, so doing big events like this; engaging the public, engaging the community, having all the resources we have on hand is just a way for us to try and really encourage people to think about that and help them to play their part. So we hopefully will have fewer deaths on our roads.”

The Liverpool City Region’s Road Safety strategy aims to reduce the number of people killed and seriously injured on Merseyside’s roads, working towards an overall Vision Zero target that aims to ensure that by 2040, there are no avoidable collisions on the region’s roads.

The plan also focuses on creating a safer environment for people to travel on foot and by bike and more children to walk or cycle to school while contributing to improved air quality across the region.

The post collision response demonstration in Williamson Square had emergency services attend a dummy collision to highlight the work that goes into saving a life.

Lauren Woodward is Group Manager at Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service, she said, "The biggest comment is people saying that would be quite scary to be involved in. That’s why when we do attend something of this nature, one of our firefighters will be in the vehicle with the casualties, talking them through our actions so that they don’t get spooked, and we try to keep them as calm as we can because it’s already a traumatic experience for them."

Watch the video above for more on the serious road traffic collision demonstrations and hear more from key figures involved in Vision Zero.