Australasian Rescue Challenge coming to Tamworth for the first time with a focus on reducing deaths on roads

More than 16 Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW) and NSW State Emergency Service (SES) teams are ready to put their skills to the test at the Australasian Road Crash Rescue Challenge.

Crews will spend three days cutting 'victims' from the wrecks of 80 crushed cars to replicate road crash scenarios and build on their lifesaving skills.

Tamworth Fire and Rescue zone commander Tom Cooper told the Leader the challenge - held at TRECC - enables teams to practice their technique, gain and share valuable new knowledge.

"The smashed up cars will have actors with simulated injuries in them. Crews will be judged on how they approach the scene, how they stabilise the vehicle, how they stabilise the patient and get the patient out of the vehicle and ready for the ambulance to take them to the hospital," he said.

"So, it's quite realistic."

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Coordinated by the Australasian Road Rescue Organisation, the challenge has never been held in Tamworth before.

Superintendent Cooper said it will showcase state-of-the-art rescue equipment and bring together manufacturers and experts from all over the world.

"Fire services and the SES work with the motor vehicle industry to ensure that our rescue techniques and the equipment that we use is keeping up to pace with their developments when they manufacture vehicles," he said.

"So this is about continuing the strong relationship we have with them, while sharpening rescuers skills and reducing road deaths on Australian roads."

FRNSW and NSW SES crews from the Hunter Valley, Hawkesbury, Port Macquarie, Wollongong and Ulladulla will compete against interstate and overseas crews from New Zealand.

With more than 300 people are expected to attend, plus manufacturers, Supt Cooper said the event is also "pumping money into the local economy".

The public is invited to come and watch crews in action at the free event at TRECC from Friday, July 22 to Sunday, July 24.

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