The scenario was a collision between a bus and a car - with several injured people who needed urgent help.
Our role in this exercise was not that of teachers, but we played injured or affected people who do not speak German, but only their native language. The idea behind this was to test the emergency services in a more realistic situation where they had to overcome the challenge of the language barrier on top of the stress of an accident. With the help of a script provided by the police, we were able to portray the various reactions and needs that can occur in a traffic accident as realistically as possible.
The morning began at the meeting point, where everything was prepared to make the scene look as real as possible: damaged vehicles, smoke, screams and lots of people playing victims. One by one, the fire department, police and rescue team began their operations. We pretended not to understand them and reacted as people would in such a stressful situation if they didn't speak the language: nervous, gesticulating and confused.
It was very interesting to see how the various teams managed to calm us down, communicate with us and provide us with the help we needed, despite all the difficulties. The exercise clearly showed that, in addition to technical knowledge, empathy, calm and creativity are also crucial to solving problems in an emergency situation.
At the end of the exercise, everyone agreed that it had been a very interesting and valuable experience. For the emergency services, it was a new and extremely useful challenge, and for us it was an opportunity to make our small contribution to ensuring that those who keep us safe are even better prepared.
Without a doubt, it was an intense, special and very instructive morning that gave us all the feeling of having learned something important.
Sergio Escañuela - Spanish teacher
