The carnage and mayhem at Manea Senior College may have been fake but the educational value was real as emergency services simulated a horrific car accident for the college’s health and medical specialist students on Friday.
The students were required to address the situation as they would a true accident with the help of Edith Cowan University’s medical students who played the role of victims.
The exercise involved a car, a drunk driver and a mob of cyclists who get run down by the driver before he hits a light post also injuring and killing the passengers in his vehicle.
Police, volunteer fire fighters and paramedics attended the simulation to add a dose of realism and also to keep their own skills sharp.
Volunteer development officer Bob Selkirk said the health specialist students benefit from the simulation but they invite the whole school to attend.
“The students get an appreciation what a real situation is like, the confusion and the interaction from all emergency levels police, ambulance and paramedics,” he said.
“These students are about to go for their driver’s licence too so there’s the added warning for them on drink driving and its consequences.
“It’s not to scare them but it might give them some appreciation of the services that have to be mobilised when an accident occurs.”
ECU medical student Ben Southi acted as the drunk driver in the simulation but said the educational element was invaluable to the students.
“This is something I'd have liked to be involved with when I was in high school, it gets them to think on their feet a bit,” he said.
