Timaru District Council, Fire and Emergency NZ, Hato Hone St John, NZ Police collaborated to create a short film to tour schools to show how many people are involved when just one car crashes.

The film will have its first school showing at Waimate High school on Thursday September 26.

The idea behind the short film Consequences came out of a multiagency engagement event where local emergency services attended a South Island high school tournament for hockey and basketball at Southern Trust Event Centre.

Throughout the three-day tournament a crashed car was visible to all students, South Canterbury Road Safety Coordinator and co-director of the film Lucy Mehrtens said.

“A live demonstration of two young people in a car accident took place on the third day, with emergency services demonstrating how they rescue people,” she said.

“In a planning meeting prior to the event, a Fire and Emergency Station Officer said they would not do a demonstration cutting up a car as they have done it countless times and it didn’t seem to have any impact.

“It was decided we would replicate a fatality, and at the end of the demonstration and the St John officer arrived and pronounced the death, a tarpaulin was pulled over the vehicle.

“You could feel the impact amongst all the spectators.”

The emergency service staff involved in the demonstration said this message needed to go wider than the tournament and the idea of the short film to take around local schools was born.

Lucy said that emergency services wanted to show young drivers the consequences of the decisions you make and just how many people you can affect with one wrong choice you make.

“The short film replicated every step of the fatality process at a local level, with crews of NZ Police, Fire and Emergency NZ, St John and Christchurch based 111 operators to truck drivers at Hilton Haulage, Betts Funeral Service and Timaru District Council,” she said.

“Over the past five years in the Timaru District there has been 55 death and serious injury classified crashes on local roads, responsible for 16 lives lost.”

Fire and Emergency Risk Reduction Officer Nick O’Brien the other co-director of the film said that the film will firmly plant people the reality of the situation.

“Unfortunately, as a responder we do not always get the opportunity to save everybody,” he said.

“It delivers an important message on the amount of people required to deal with a single crash. It creates awareness around how these incidents impact our responders and, most importantly, it puts our young drivers in direct contact with those that may have to respond to them one day.

“This project would not have been possible without buy-in from all those that become involved following a motor vehicle crash.

“The willingness to share their own unique perspectives, from the call taker at a communication centre through to the coroner’s representative in South Canterbury and all those who help in between has been incredible.

“It is fair to say we have people right across our district that are passionate about road safety and the effort put in by everyone on this project proves that.”

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