Car Crash Demo

South Yorkshire fire-fighters recreated the scene of a serious car crash last Saturday in Sheffield city centre to highlight the dangers of reckless driving and not wearing a seatbelt.

The Valentine's Day demonstration took place on the Moor at the rear of Sainsbury's at 11am as part of the South Yorkshire Casualty Reduction Partnership’s ‘Kill Your Speed, Not Your Girlfriend’ campaign aimed at 17 to 24 year olds.

It's calculated that 32% of all people killed or seriously injured on South Yorkshire's roads were aged between 17 and 24, from 2000 to 2008. These shocking figures helped to inspire the car-crash demo.

Paramedics were also at the fake crash last weekend to attend to Sheffield University and Hallam students who were acting as casualties of the collision.

Shayne Tottie, from South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue’s Community Safety Team, said: "We made the scenes as true to life as possible, even using make-up artists on the casualties."
He adds: "We hope it had an impact on those watching, and they will understand what the consequences of reckless driving can be."

Steve Betts, Communications Manager for the South Yorkshire Casualty Reduction Partnership hopes the campaign will also encourage passengers in a car to "speak up and tell their drivers to slow down" as often they feel uncomfortable to do so resulting in fatal consequences.

The car-crash demonstration also took place in Rotherham, Doncaster and Barnsley on the same day.