The Department of Home Affairs’ Emergency Planning Unit conducted a multi-agency major incident exercise last week simulating a serious road traffic collision involving multiple casualties.

The simulation brought together the Isle of Man Constabulary, Fire and Rescue Service, Ambulance Service and Civil Defence to test and refine their coordinated response to a complex incident.

The scenario involved a staged car crash with several injured individuals, portrayed by medical students and volunteers using realistic makeup and role-play techniques.

This allowed emergency teams to practise triage, casualty extraction, and inter-agency coordination and communication under realistic conditions.

The scene also included actors taking on the role of members of the public using video phones to record the aftermath of the incident, who were asked by police to leave the area as part of the simulation.

The exercise, which took place near the Vehicle Test Centre in Tromode, concluded with a debrief session where agencies shared insights and identified opportunities for further improvement.

The Isle of Man Fire and Rescue Service’s Murray Halsall said: ‘This was all about testing our operational response.

‘This incident in particular was a road traffic collision into a crowd of people at a bus stop.

‘Throughout the process, we've been mobilised from our emergency services joint control room and then actually been in attendance at the incident for our firefighters to undertake triage and facilitate full rescues of those trapped in vehicles.

‘I think it's important to get these different emergency services together every now and then, so everyone's clued up to know the right things to do at the right time.

‘It gives us massive appreciation for the constraints that the other services are working with, and likewise for us to put forward our limitations with our resources. We'll now go through a full debrief and review all of the radio messages as well

‘There will always be learning outcomes and areas of improvement for all of us.’

The Emergency Planning Unit conducts a similar exercise every year as a key performance indicator within the Department of Home Affairs’ plan.

The emergency planning officer Jane Kelly thanked all participants, including volunteers such as the Salvation Army who aided the teams involved in the operation, for their contribution to strengthening the island’s resilience.

‘We try and do one of these every year, and it's really important that we bring everybody together to train our skills, use the joint venture services interoperability principles and all work together,’ Jane said.

‘It's a great opportunity for each service to learn from each other, communicate, share all their understanding, and then hopefully come up with a really good solution to deal with the incident.

‘The exercise went really well, and there was good energy from everybody who came in as a responder, as well as some excellent acting from the junior doctors at Noble’s Hospital.

‘Everybody's come together, worked really hard, and hopefully we've come out with a good outcome.’