Episode 13: The Choices We Make Behind the Wheel

In this episode of Out of the Ashes: Stories from Lancashire, we’re diving into all things road safety.

We’re joined by Crew Manager Charlie from Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service (LFRS), Group Manager Craig from North West Ambulance Service (NWAS), and Scene Manager and Family Liaison Officer Simon from Lancashire Police’s Serious Collision Unit, who share their experiences of attending road traffic collisions and the vital roles they play at the scene.

We discuss what really happens when emergency services respond to a collision, the trends they are seeing on our roads, and the ‘Fatal Five’ behaviours that continue to put lives at risk. The episode also explores how different groups, from young drivers to older motorists, can stay safe, with practical advice for everyone who uses our roads.

Whether you’re a driver, passenger, cyclist or pedestrian, this episode is packed with insights and tips to help keep you and others safe.

Links to Websites/Resources discussed in the episode:

If you're interested in finding out more about road safety, please head to our website: www.lancsfirerescue.org.uk/road

On our webpage, you’ll find advice on road safety, including guidance for pedestrians and tips for driving in winter conditions.

And remember if you liked our episode, please like and subscribe and let’s make Lancashire safer together.

Transcript

[00:00:09.270] - Host (Lucinda)
Welcome to Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service's podcast series, Out of the Ashes: Stories from Lancashire. In this episode today, we're diving into all things road safety. I'll be chatting to Crew Manager Charlie from Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service(LFRS) , Group Manager Craig from North West Ambulance Service (NWAS), and Scene Manager and Family Liaison Officer Simon from the Serious Collision Unit at Lancashire Police.

[00:00:32.410] - Host (Lucinda)
We'll be talking about what happens at road traffic collisions and the roles that they play, the trends that they're seeing on our roads, and the Fatal Five behaviours. We'll also be looking at how different groups, from young drivers to older motorists, can stay safe and share practical tips for everyone behind the wheel. Do you want to just each of you in turn tell me what your role is within your service?

[00:00:54.460] - Simon - Lancs Police
Yeah, so from the police service, I work on the Serious Collision Unit. Our role is to attend serious life-changing collisions and collisions involving fatalities, and we investigate the collision. I work as one of the scene managers overseeing the collision. I'm also a family liaison officer as well.

[00:01:14.450] - Charlie (LFRS)
Yeah, so I'm Charlie, I'm an operational crew manager based out of Skelmersdale and an on-call crew manager based out of Ormskirk. So we basically ride the fire engines to different incidents, working alongside the police and Northwest Ambulance Service depending on what the incident is that we go to.

[00:01:33.410] - Craig - NWAS
And I'm Craig, I'm one of the group managers for Northwest Ambulance Service. I cover the South Lancashire area, so I respond to larger incidents but also look after a group of stations within the area.

[00:01:43.250] - Host (Lucinda)
Perfect. So we're in this section, we're just going to discuss the roles that each emergency service plays at a scene of a road traffic collision, which obviously you all play completely different roles but you work together for the same reason. So at a road traffic collision, what does the fire service do? Do you want to give us a brief overview?

[00:02:03.560] - Charlie (LFRS)
Yeah, so obviously depending on what the situation is, it can vary. It is dependent on what we would do at an incident. Like, that can vary from simply disconnecting a battery, making the scene safe for our partner agencies to work there, whether that be like highways as well as he the police and North West Ambulance Service going to an incident we'd have to create dynamically. So we'd start off with a B plan really, and that'd be like a quick access, but all that depends on what North West Ambulance Service tell us that the casualty situation is, whether they need to be, whether they're critical and need to come out. We'll implement taking a door off and putting in like a rapid rescue sort of thing, and then it can vary to a full golden hour sort of timescale where within the first 25 minutes we should have a full roof off and we're doing a full extrication of a casualty inside a vehicle really, but like I say that all depends on working alongside the paramedics on scene and the police as well.

[00:03:10.770] - Host (Lucinda)
So it feels natural to come to you next, the ambulance service?

[00:03:14.050] - Craig - NWAS
Yeah, so I mean our role is always going to be that patient management and the care of them and we work with all the services. So when we're looking at the patient in the vehicle or outside the vehicle, we've got to put a plan together and we'll use the expertise from the fire service to sort of say the best option, and we'll start by saying whether that's going to be a quick thing or something that can be done at a sort of slow time. It can be quite frightening for the person in the car. We're aware that sometimes critically we need to move them quickly, so there's a lot of conversation that'll take place about how we're going to do that whilst also maintaining the safety of all the responders that are on the scene at the same time.

[00:03:46.720] - Host (Lucinda)
Finally, I'll come across to the police. So what's your role when you're at a road traffic collision?

[00:03:51.690] - Simon - Lancs Police
So our main role is to take charge of the scene and secure it for evidential purposes to investigate it. However, preservation of life always comes first. We're always linking with the fire service, ambulance service to see what they need. Depends where it is. If it's on a motorway, they may need to bring further resources in, so we'll accommodate bringing people the wrong way down the motorway. Any environmental issues, we're linking with the fire service. And then once the casualty's been extracted and the scene's handed over to ourselves, that's when our investigation work will continue.So if it's a serious or a fatality, we'll call out our forensic collision unit. They'll come and take measurements, look at physical evidence to try and find the cause of the accident. We'll deploy family liaison officers to the family's address to make family aware, to get them to the hospital. And then as a scene manager, I'll take charge of allocating actions on what I need for the investigation, such as CCTV, casualty details, witness details.

[00:04:50.330] - Simon - Lancs Police
There's quite a lot that goes into a collision. The big one from the police, a lot of the time it may look like we're not doing a lot because the fire service have got their role, the ambulance have got their role, but primarily we're trying to make sure that we don't let further people into the scene for further risk or contaminate the scene.

[00:05:07.660] - Host (Lucinda)
Clearly each role of each service is different, but you work together to, well, help everybody that's in, unfortunately, that incident. Let's look at Lancashire as a whole. What are we seeing predominantly? Are we seeing any trends? Are we seeing— what are you seeing out there on the roads when you're attending road traffic collisions? I'll leave it open to the group.

[00:05:31.190] - Simon - Lancs Police
Seeing a lot more younger drivers involved in collisions, certainly from my experience lately. Haven't been wearing seat belts. I've been certainly collisions in the past 12 months where young drivers would have survived the collision or certainly not received serious injuries if they did have a seatbelt on. We've been to numerous occasions lately where people have actually been ejected from vehicles due to the force involved in the collision, and if they did have a seatbelt on, they wouldn't have been ejected.

[00:05:59.680] - Craig - NWAS
I think we're seeing that ambulance-wise as well, like medically. It's tragic when you go into an incident like that and you're just thinking, if that seatbelt had been on, it would have been such a different outcome. And the medical sort of, the severity of it when they've been ejected from a vehicle. So if it's not been a fatality, you're talking major trauma, life-changing injuries. So even if it's a non-fatality, you know, there's going to be a long recovery if they even make it. We're also seeing the same with the young people as well. A lot more people are doing, so not just the drink driving used to be a thing very historically, but a lot more drug driving as well now. Again, tragic outcomes and also tragic outcomes for those that survive and end up being arrested.

[00:06:42.300] - Simon - Lancs Police
Even vehicles where the driver's not the actual cause of a collision have tested positive for cannabis. Seen a rise in ketamine use and driving vehicles, and the nitrous oxide still seems to be about. We get numerous calls of people driving whilst on nitrous. So we have, we have had a rise in it, certainly around cannabis use, because I think a lot of people now see cannabis as socially accepted, not realising it is still an illegal drug and you shouldn't be driving on it.

[00:07:11.930] - Host (Lucinda)

Is there one line that you'd like to say to young people out there to try and get this through to them?

[00:07:18.500] - Simon - Lancs Police

Eh, it might not seem cool wearing a seatbelt, but I've certainly been to many collisions where seatbelts have saved lives. Went to one a few weeks ago. And I've been to many collisions where people not wearing seat belts, it's clearly caused their injuries. So I'd probably say is just make sure you've got the seat belt on. It's one piece of fabric across your chest and across your waist, but it's likely to save your life.

[00:07:45.990] - Craig - NWAS
We see it with older people as well. We've seen it with older people who will plug the seat belts in behind them so it's not beeping whilst they're driving. I just don't quite fully get it, but I think we've seen the other end of that. I think when you see, you know, what it can do, it really makes you think, why would you do that?

[00:08:01.250] - Charlie (LFRS)

Massive message that isn't just for the emergency services to be passing on for people wearing seatbelts. And yeah, that's aimed at younger drivers and stuff, but even being a parent and going to school and being a parent myself now, it's like, it's constantly put your seatbelt on. You drive completely differently now that you see all the things you see, really.

[00:08:22.650] - Host (Lucinda)

It is really important to make sure that everybody in the car has got their seatbelt on correctly to ensure safety if the worst thing was to happen.

[00:08:31.090] - Craig - NWAS

I was involved from the ambulance, I was involved in a really tragic case whereby the, it was a rear seat passenger that wasn't wearing one and it was the injuries that they caused the front seat passenger, you know, because they weren't buckled in they've shot forward at the speed that car was going with their full body weight and everything and the person in the front of the car, without going into too much, but they were trapped in that car and they needed to be recovered well, and need to cut them out with the fire service, and that was all through the person in the back of the vehicle.

[00:09:00.150] - Craig - NWAS

Going forward at force?

[00:09:00.780] - Craig - NWAS

it was a mate, he was a friend of one of the others, and you just think if they'd have had that belt on, what a difference that potentially could have made.

[00:09:07.190] - Charlie (LFRS)

Just following on from that, so a piece of information we give to kids and children in year 6 from our educational point of view is if you don't have your seat belt on and you're travelling at more than 30 miles an hour, you actually become the same weight as a baby elephant in a vehicle if it's come into a collision.

[00:09:27.930] - Host (Lucinda)

Really?

[00:09:28.430] - Charlie (LFRS)

Yeah, so as a projectile, you become the weight of a baby elephant if you're travelling over 30 mph. So if you think, just use that as something to put in your head. If you think of how big and heavy a baby elephant is and you're in a Ford KA or you're in a pretty small car, you've not got a lot of places to go really, have you, if you've not got a seatbelt on and You just think if something happens and it takes a split second for something to happen that is outside of your control.

[00:09:56.590] - Host (Lucinda)

Like we said about putting a seatbelt on, it only takes a second, but it only takes a second for something to go significantly wrong in a car, and it might not be your fault, but there's precautions that we can take to help.

[00:10:07.650] - Craig - NWAS

But they're not doing it in the back of taxis and things. So we're still seeing it in taxis where the person in the back— there's certainly a black cab as well, you know, big open space in the back of one of them. And if one of them has a crash, you're certainly going to go flying. So it seems like any vehicle you're in, just pop that belt on, it's so easy.

[00:10:23.350] - Host (Lucinda)

It's there for a reason, isn't it?

[00:10:25.180] - Simon - Lancs Police

I think the problem is people always have that mentality, it's not going to happen to me, but the problem you've got with how many cars on the road this day and age, as colleagues mentioned, you could be the safest driver in the world, you can't anticipate what other people are going to do.

[00:10:40.090] - Host (Lucinda)

That was a really interesting conversation. It's definitely really important to have those seatbelts on and, well, like we said, we're not just targeting younger drivers but that is what we're currently seeing quite an influx of. But as a whole nationally we are seeing a lot of coverage for road traffic collisions and impacts on the roads, specifically in Lancashire. Simon, do you want to shed a little bit more light on that for me?

[00:11:04.770] - Simon - Lancs Police

Yeah, so one of the national priorities at the moment I've noticed is older drivers. Generally in the UK we've now got a more ageing population. One thing I have been involved in, and it's national coverage, and coroner's made a programme on it, is within Lancashire we had two fatalities, both over east of the county, where the drivers that have caused the fatal collision both had inadequate eyesight, where they shouldn't have been on the road, but because it was a self-certification, they've said their eyesight's fit and they've continued driving. So there's no winners in it. Fatal collisions, they do ruin the lives of both the victims and the drivers. They've got to live with the fact that they've been involved in a fatal collision.

[00:11:51.740] - Craig - NWAS

It's not just their eyesight as well, is it? Also changes to medication as well from a medical point of view. You'll get to a certain age in life and before you know it you're on different medication. And there's a lot of emphasis at the moment on people just having to self-report and do things. I think it's being aware of what medication you're on or being aware of what medical condition you've got because there are some that can certainly affect your ability to drive, you know, in a safe manner. And again, the repercussions of that, you know, you never know who's driving, doing a school pickup, and before you know it you've got a grandparent who's unfortunately going to be causing a collision, and it has massive knock-on effects. So I think the big thing is say, yeah, get your eyes tested, Certainly do that, but also check the medication you're on, speak to your doctor, see whether there's something you do need to talk to the DVLA about. And people are scared of it because they think the DVLA is going to just take the licence off them straight away. I think just check, cheque half the time.

[00:12:43.150] - Craig - NWAS

If you can do that and you know you're safe, then that's the main thing.

[00:12:45.330] - Simon - Lancs Police

I think the thing around the medication, a lot of people assume drug driving, such as the Section 5 driving over prescribed limits or unfit through drugs, is just cocaine, cannabis, heroin, all your recreational drugs. It does also cover medication as well. So I think for elderly drivers, if they are on various cocktail medication, it's just knowing, are they fit to drive?

[00:13:09.090] - Craig - NWAS

Again, it's about just thinking for yourself, or if you've got a loved one that you're concerned about, are their reactions as quick as you would like? Would you be happy to put your own kids in the car with them? It's a really difficult conversation to have with maybe an elderly relative, to ask them, do you think you should still be on the road? but it's something that again, just would you be able to think about what would happen if you didn't have that conversation?

[00:13:30.710] - Charlie (LFRS)

It definitely is a difficult conversation having to have it with a grandparent or an elderly relative or even your neighbour sometimes. I know my granddad was exactly the same, it was a really difficult conversation having it with him because it was his independence really, isn't it?

[00:13:44.830] - Simon - Lancs Police

Yeah.

[00:13:45.080] - Charlie (LFRS)

For the elderly people, and then we ended up buying him this Gucci scooter that he could just go around everywhere that he wanted to and he loved it. But it's having that initial conversation with them. And just in my hand here, I've got an educational package that we give out in the home fire safety cheques that we're giving out. And it's just re-emphasising the fact that you do need to get your eyes tested. And a lot of people don't know the distance that they need to be able to see, which is 20 metres, and just being able to read a registration plate.

[00:14:16.320] - Charlie (LFRS)

So even if you just want to play a game with yourself as you're listening to this now or something, then look out the window or try and find something 20 metres away. That's probably like if you're sat in your living room or wherever you are now, in your kitchen, just try and read the chopping board or something that's on there and see if you can read it. And if you can't, then that might be something that you need to go, I could go and get my eyes tested there.

[00:14:39.500] - Simon - Lancs Police

Yeah, I think the big one is, is it's taking someone's independence away. No one wants to do it, but sometimes you've got to think of a bigger picture. If your family member was involved in a collision and they unfortunately killed somebody, Your family member's got to live with that for the rest of their life, but also it's the impact on the rest of the family they have to put up with as well. It's the impact on the victim's families, so sometimes you do have to have that chat with them, as my colleagues mentioned. There's a lot of organisations out there that can assist with people.

[00:15:09.960] - Charlie (LFRS)

Yeah, well, I've just literally had a look at the bottom of that leaflet as, as that discussion was going on there, and it's something I didn't actually realise as a distance thing or a a way to look at it. It says on the bottom of that, um, if you do less than 2,000 miles a year, it might be time to, to retire your, uh, your driving licence. And I'm just thinking back to like going back to my granddad and my neighbour and things like that. The shop that he drives to is 150 metres away and he still takes his car out and things like that, but that's because that's what he wants to do and that's what it— that, that's what it is. Um, but if that's the the case and there's the deterioration of eyesight and different medication, it's not the be-all and end-all losing your car. That might allow you to have more of a social, like, community build-up because all he has to do is knock at our door and we'll take him out or we'll go to the shop with him or, well, that's just my personal situation, but I'm sure there's hundreds and thousands of people who would be really happy and willing to help their elderly relative, neighbour, and do whatever they need to do to go and get the newspaper that they still read.

[00:16:18.040] - Simon - Lancs Police

I think it's just routine as well. If you've been driving for 50, 60, 70 years, you've got that routine where it's just easy to jump in your car and go. And certainly, elderly people, unfortunately, I have had to revoke people's driving licences due to eyesight. It's not a nice thing to do, but as the police service, we have had to do it. And on some people, they are only driving 1,000 to 2,000 miles a year, if that. So it's not a nice thing to do, but it's just to be aware of it.

[00:16:47.230] - Host (Lucinda)

We've looked at what we're seeing on the roads. One thing I am interested in finding out about is mobile phone use. I know in the time that I've been driving, the laws came in that you were not allowed on your mobile phone, and I know in the future they're looking at whether you can have GPS on your phone or whether it has to be in the car. Is this still a thing?

[00:17:06.090] - Host (Lucinda)

Is, are we still seeing road traffic collisions with mobile phone use, um, or are you still seeing road users using their mobile phones whilst they're driving?

[00:17:17.470] - Simon - Lancs Police

I think from an enforcement point of view, from a police— is certainly my time on traffic, it did seem to calm down slightly when they changed it up to 6 points on your driving licence. However, Recently, I'd probably say it has risen again. I think social media has probably not helped. Certainly in my time I've been involved in investigating collisions where people have been making Snapchat videos, TikTok videos whilst driving, or even having the mobile phone and watching YouTube videos. It's taken their attention off the road, so I have seen a rise in it in stuff I've investigated. Whether it's a national rise, I don't know without looking at figures, but that's just from probably from my personal experience.

[00:18:07.000] - Craig - NWAS

It's the distraction, isn't it? I think if you think about how people can multitask so well now with a phone in one hand whilst, I don't know, eating the tea at the same time, it's different when you're in a vehicle. And all it takes is that split second of not concentrating on what you're doing where it all goes completely wrong. And it's again the social media side of it, you're seeing people are, you know, they're trying to get likes and you'd often get them showing off in front of their friends or putting videos on there or whatever you get. But it's not just that younger generation as well. I think you are seeing people, they'll stop at a set of lights and they'll do a quick search on something. I don't know the full laws around it, I think I'd have to speak to Simon about that one. But it's about cars nowadays, there's so much technology on there to allow you to be able to just connect it up there and be able to play your music and what have you. But yeah, it's another one of them that I think it's just a simple thing, just to put it away whislt you're driving.

[00:18:56.310] - Charlie (LFRS)

I know we only see from, from our point of view that we don't really get to, to know quite often what actually happens after an incident, a fire service point of view just specifically. We, we go and do what is required of us, and it might be like a really major incident, or we've got to do a lot of cutting out, and we've got— we're affected by what we've seen and things like that. And then we don't get to find out what happens after it unless it goes to coroner's courts and stuff. But there is a massive knock-on effect for if you're the driver, and then you're not just the only person who's affected. You've affected the emergency service who's come, who might have been able to go and do something else. Yeah, assist in someone else's basically worst, worst day of their life, really, haven't they? Depending on what their situation is, as well as their immediate friends and family, anyone else that they know. And then if you've come into contact with someone else, then it's whoever's affected there. So doing all these, these different things and haven't like— back to seat belts, um, different medications, distractions and things like that— there is a massive knock-on effect, not just from that one person and the immediate effect.

[00:20:05.220] - Charlie (LFRS)

I know earlier there was the, um, all the investigations that go into it. It's, it's a massive investigation just to go to coroner's court to say These are all A to Z for the people that have been affected in this.

[00:20:17.570] - Simon - Lancs Police

Yeah, definitely.

[00:20:18.230] - Craig - NWAS

It's frustrating because all the things that we're talking about are just really simple, really simple things you can just do. We're not asking you to go away and study for 50 years to learn something. They're really simple things that you can do to make a difference to your life and those around you.

[00:20:32.170] - Simon - Lancs Police

I mean, the ultimate thing is we want people to go home happy at the end of the day, even if we  save one person's life, we just, we want people to go home. As my colleague from fire service mentioned, it's a knock-on effect on everyone, including witnesses. I've had to refer witnesses to certain collisions through to support through 'Aftermath' and other charities because of what they've seen. You don't wish it on anyone and some stuff where you see, certainly what the witnesses see, You can't get it out of your head, it does sit with you. I can remember every single fatal I've been to, near enough. I'd say I'm used to it because of the job I do, but I can remember every job I've gone to and every family I've supported as an FLO (family liaison officer).

[00:21:19.980] - Charlie (LFRS)

Yeah, I completel, we don't necessarily know we're signing up for it, but we sign up to go out and deal with these situations. The people who are actually involved in them, who are majorly affected, don't sign up. To see the, uh, to see what they see, to be involved in what they see. And if people want to drive like this, then there's places and times to go and do it. There's all advanced courses that people can go on, which all it takes now is just to use your phone when you're at home, not in a car, and Google an advanced course. There's that many out there, um, not to specifically name any, but they got reduced your insurance and have massive knock-on effects for all of the massive cost of living prices that are out there now, as well as if you want to drive like that, if you want to do like that, there's circuits around. Yeah. Um, and, and there's courses you can go on where you get taught how to, to drive safely and, and process things on the road better to make—

[00:22:13.270] - Craig - NWAS

and the courses are fun, they teach you, you know, you learn so much on them about how to drive. It's not just about driving safe, it's also about having a better view of the road, you know, reading the road, if that makes sense. Reading other road users as much as you can, because like we were saying earlier on, you could be what you think is the best driver in the world and it just takes somebody else's mistake. But these courses help you anticipate some of that because of the way you're looking at what other people are doing. So they're good fun and they're definitely good for drivers to kind of sign up to if they can.

[00:22:39.210] - Charlie (LFRS)

I'm sure all of us have done something in here and I can tell you now that was probably the best 2-week course I've done driving around Lancashire in a fire appliance. Not just under blue lights either. But even going onto the biking sort of stuff, I'm an instructor for Rosenbauer, which is an advanced motorcycle thing, and even then I'm still learning stuff all the time. And the people come on there want to be on there and want to do it, and we just have a good laugh.

[00:23:07.500] - Host (Lucinda)

So we've spoken about quite a lot of the dangers and what trends, not trends, but what we're seeing out on the roads with road traffic collisions. Now, from my job role, I know that these are part of the Fatal Five. We talk about this a lot on socials. A lot of people probably have heard us say the words Fatal Five but might not know what that actually means. Could I open this to the room so we can go through what the Fatal Five is and, well, what we're seeing?

[00:23:34.990] - Simon - Lancs Police

The Fatal Five is, from my understanding, is it's the 5 most common causes of fatal collisions, speed being the number 1 priority. We all moan about when the speed camera van's out, me being one of them, but there is a reason for that and it's to try and reduce people's speed to prevent serious or fatal collisions. Mobile phone use is another one, as we discussed earlier on. Drink or drugs, careless driving, and seat belts.

[00:24:09.850] - Craig - NWAS

All the things we've been discussing as well, really, aren't they? So, and I think that's because certainly this area within being some of the highest things, the things that are going to cause the biggest injury, or in this case the fatalities. That's why there's so much focus on them at the moment.

[00:24:23.490] - Charlie (LFRS)

Obviously with speed being the, um, the biggest trend out of the fatal 5, or the big— the most serious issue, um, out of the fatal 5 at the minute, I think there's statistics show, um, from like speed awareness courses and things like that, and the advanced courses If you're travelling at 70 miles an hour down a road, uh, and you do— you're covering 100 miles an hour, you're going to get there in a certain amount of time. But then if you then decide to do 80 miles an hour and cover that exact 100 miles at exactly the same time, you're only going to get there 8 seconds quicker. So it doesn't matter that you get that— that time difference, um, is only so small travelling at the speed that you're actually meant to be travelling at. Which is much safer, and you're only going to lose 8 seconds.

[00:25:12.110] - Craig - NWAS

And the time saved is ridiculously small, yet the consequences are ridiculously high.

[00:25:17.090] - Simon - Lancs Police

Yeah, yeah, that's what we're saying. We've probably all seen it coming home from work. If you drive this, or even as a passenger, you'll have someone that overtakes you. You probably swear to yourself, they carry on speeding at stupid speeds, and then 2 minutes later you're sat behind the same car again in traffic. Yeah, and we've all seen it at some point. We've not gained any, we've not gained any ground.

[00:25:40.520] - Host (Lucinda)

I think we've covered a great amount in this episode, and it's definitely been educational for not just myself, but I hope everyone that's listening. I ask this to all of our guests, so can I ask, what's the biggest takeaway you hope the listeners take away from this episode? So we'll go through the police, fire, and then the ambulance service. Is that okay?

[00:26:02.700] - Simon - Lancs Police

So I think for myself is people just being more aware on the roads that they can be a dangerous place, and as long as we take precautions, put seat belts, just keep yourself as safe as possible and try and reduce the number of deaths or serious injuries we have on the Lancashire roads.

[00:26:21.080] - Charlie (LFRS)

Yeah, I think from my point of view, and hopefully I'm speaking for the whole of the fire service really, is Just people have more of an understanding of how big the knock-on effect of calls and situations is on the roads, not just for the emergency services because that is what we sign up to do is to help people, but it's just having an understanding of the knock-on effect of not just yourself but it's your immediate family and anyone else who's involved in the incident that you might be dealing with, however small it is.

[00:26:55.410] - Craig - NWAS

I think these are really simple things we've talked about, simple things that you can do, anyone can do, just to make a real difference to your life and those around you. Unfortunately, we do work together quite closely, but ideally we'd like to not see each other whilst we're in work. So simple things just to make, you know, your life easier.

[00:27:13.310] - Host (Lucinda)

So thank you very much for taking the time today to talk to me. I think it's been a great episode and definitely worth a listen for everybody who's out there.

[00:27:21.380] - Charlie (LFRS)

Thank you.

[00:27:21.940] - Simon - Lancs Police

Yeah, thank you.

[00:27:24.100] - Host (Lucinda)

If you're interested in finding out about road safety, please head to our website on www.lancsfirerescue.org.uk/road. The link will be in the episode notes below. On our webpage, we have a section for road safety advice, road safety for pedestrians, and winter road safety.

[00:27:43.130] - Host (Lucinda)

And remember, if you liked our episode, please like and subscribe and let's make Lancashire safer together.