HIGH School pupils in Herefordshire have been asked if they’re ‘dying to drive’.

The emergency services and partner agencies have launched a campaign to cut the number of young fatalities on the county’s roads.

The campaign uses shock tactics and exposes students to the horrors of a fatal car crash.

Nearly 1,500 pupils, aged 14 to 15, watched the chilling demonstration last week at Peterchurch fire station. The scene is a two-car collision, with walking wounded, a trapped driver, and a woman passenger lying dead.

Performed by real-life emergency crews and actors, the show leaves nothing to the imagination. But according to Debbie Davies, of Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue, prevention is the key.

“It’s the closest demonstration you could see without being in an accident,” she said. “Shock tactics sometimes work – it shows how undignified it is to be this person whose clothes and limbs are ripped off.”

Actress Judith Ward plays the woman killed in the car crash and she believes she’s making a difference.

“I started doing this two years ago in Birmingham and it resulted in one young man deciding not to go into a car with four mates,” she said. “The car crashed – if I save a life, it’s worth it.”

Figures by the Institute of Advanced Motorists show nearly a third of fatal road crashes involve a driver aged 17 to 22, while collisions are the single greatest killer of those aged 15 to 24. Excess speed, drink, showing-off and distractions all figure in the accidents.

Students attended a series of workshops, illustrating those factors and what action to take in an emergency.

Paramedic Phil Soanes attended two serious crashes last month and recalled the experiences when offering first aid advice.

“You get the call and end up thinking, what are we going to this time?” he said. “It’s not a nice thing for us to go and witness and we really don’t want to see young people ending up like this.”

A traumatic day for students ended with a series of Irish TV commercials, banned in Britain because of their content.

Kevin Williams, station manager at Peterchurch, thinks the campaign has made a difference, both for students and his staff.

“It gives our crews a chance to train but we want to present it as realistically as we can,” he said.

Staff from West Midlands Ambulance Service talk in depth about the level and nature of injuries that can be sustained in a car crash and their consequences. They also teach basic first aid.

Herefordshire Council, West Mercia Constabulary, the Youth Offending Service and St John Ambulance also contributed to the event.