A CAR crash re-enactment was held at BAE’s Samlesbury site yesterday as part of the Wasted Lives campaign.

Hosted by the aerospace giant, the road traffic collision exercise involved Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service, North West Air Ambulance and police.

The tri-service training exercise simulated a high-speed car crash in which the driver was over the alcohol limit.

The exercise highlighted the consequences of drink-driving and displayed the coherence between the three services who assessed, treated and rescued the ‘patients’.

Wasted Lives was launched by the Lancashire Telegraph to highlight the number of young people killed and seriously injured in car crashes.

BAE employees posed as casualties and there was one ‘mock’ fatality, two serious casualties and one walking wounded, two of which had to be cut from the car.

Steve Collins, road safety co-ordinator for the fire service, said: “We were contacted by BAE to see if we could do a road traffic collision demonstration for their apprentices who work on site.

“It has been a couple of months of planning for the multi-agency exercise.

“We want to highlight the dangers of driving at high speeds, especially on rural roads.

“One third of our calls out now are to road traffic incidents. Around 57 per cent of all collisions are on rural roads, and 53 per cent involve 17-25- year-old drivers.”

He said that as part of the campaign, the fire service had also secured sessions as part of the apprentice programme.

The first session will be delivered next month.

A BAE spokeswoman said: “It was quite a sombre exercise, and quite emotional.

“We have given up our runway in the past to the emergency services to carry out similar exercises but this time we have hosted and initiated it.”

The exercise was narrated by the fire service, who explained to the crowd of employees what was happening.

A black Vauxhall Corsa, the car driven by 18-year-old Matthew Alston from Simonstone, who tragically lost his life in 2010 after driving too fast while over the limit and crashing into a car, was provided at the scene at the request of his parents, Janet and Andrew.