By Apprentice Community Safety Advisor Peter Ashton
On 20th May 2013 I had the privilege to organise an event for Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service to attend the College for a services day. Attending along with us were the Territorial Army, the North West Ambulance Service, and also Greater Manchester Police.
The TA brought along with them a 105 field gun paintballing range, a climbing wall as well as various other pieces of army equipment to demonstrate to the public.
The NHS attended with an Ambulance showing people around it, they explained the peices of equipment that they would use on a day to day basis.
The GMP attended with a road car, equipped with a sophisticated Number Plate Recognition System. They also brought a new undercover BMW road response car.
As I was organising for GMFRS to attend, the best thing I could think about doing was basing our day on Road Traffic Collisions. This was because the ages of students from 17 – 25 attending the College fit into the categories where many either drive or may be learning to drive. This fits the age range of young deaths on the road, with either themselves being a victim or potentially being the cause.
At first I originally planned for a crashed car to be there so the Fire Service Crew attending could cut it up and show people a demonstration on how to cut people out of an RTC. Unfortunately, due to insufficient room, I was unable to plan that, therefore I asked the pump would they give people a tour by showing people around it and also explain the equipment they use on a daily basis. We also had a damaged car which was involved in an unfortunate crash involving a young driver. We also brought the small incident unit to explain their roles.
I had a stall inside the College as well promoting what we do as a whole organisation. I was encouraging people to test their smoke alarms weekly if they had one, if they did not, then they could book one or book one for their parents to get a Home Safety Check.
Actors at an earlier road safety demonstration
Due to us being there for road safety I thought it would be appropriate to provide advice and leaflets on road safety to the young people. This was done to help prevent collisions from happening or minimalizing the risk.
I designed a questionnaire to get views from the young people themselves on road safety and also a few questions on being under the influence of alcohol whilst driving. One of the major factors in the questions was asking how many people wore their seatbelts. The results that I collected were outstanding. The amount of young people that admitted being in a car with a friend or driving themselves under the influence of alcohol was phenomenal. We explained that they were at major risk from being in a collision. Due to this, we are currently negotiating with the college about presenting the Drive to Live Campaign within the College. This is a workshop which actors would demonstrate and also act out scenes from a collision, who it affects and also getting the young adults involved.
The whole day was a huge success with visits from Peter O’Reilly and Dave Keelan who were keen to see what was going on. The event has shown and hopefully encouraged the young adults to be more careful and take extra caution whilst driving or being a passenger in a car.
