Newark: Road traffic collision extrication demonstrated for students at Dukeries Academy, Ollerton

A road traffic collision extrication was demonstrated for pupils at a secondary school and sixth form.

The procedure — to free people trapped in vehicles — was put on for sixth form students of the Dukeries Academy, Ollerton.

The day was delivered by Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service, Nottinghamshire Police, a road safety team and magistrates.

The pupils learnt all about road safety and the dangers of being a young or learner driver.

Edwinstowe Blue Watch and Warsop on-call demonstrated the road traffic collision extrication at the academy on Monday.

Firefighters in Nottinghamshire attend hundreds of road traffic collisions each year, many of which are serious.

The service works in conjunction with other agencies, such as Nottinghamshire Police, East Midlands Ambulance Service and the Nottinghamshire Road Safety Partnership, to educate local people and reduce the amount of crashes that occur on our roads, and there are a number of things that road users can do to help with this.

Safe driving is mostly common sense. The fire service's top five tips for preventing collisions are:

Think speed — the risk of killing a pedestrian is four times higher at 40mph than at 30mph;

Keep your distance — leave at least a two-second gap between you and the car in front;

Don't drink and drive — just one drink can affect your response times as a driver;

Drive according to the road and weather conditions — rain, ice and fog can all make it much more likely you will suffer a collision;

Wear a seatbelt — this will massively reduce the chances of you suffering a serious injury.

Another common cause of collisions, and something else to consider, is distraction.

Using a mobile phone while driving means you are four times more likely to be killed or seriously injured in a crash — and that doesn't take in to account the potentially devastating consequences driving while distracted can have on other road users.

Distraction also covers things such as eating while driving and using other devices such as sat navs.

It's also important to ensure that, as a driver, your vehicle is well maintained and road worthy. The depth of tread on your tyres, for example, is critical when it comes to accelerating, braking, steering and cornering, and even more so when the roads are wet.

The UK minimum legal tread depth is 1.6mm. Tyresafe.org has put together an informative video which tells you how to check if your tyres are legal.