A major immersive training exercise was recently conducted by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), Northern Ireland Fire & Rescue Service (NIFRS), Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS), and the Air Ambulance. The initiative was designed to evaluate and enhance the readiness, responsiveness, and joint-working capabilities of the emergency services during a large-scale crisis.

The services responded 'as live' to a simulated serious, multi-vehicle road traffic collision involving civilian transport alongside police armoured cars carrying detained individuals. Each emergency service operated exactly as they would during a real-world scenario, executing duties in line with their standard training. This included managing operational command at the scene, using cutting equipment on vehicles, and administering treatment to casualties.

While several local police officers roleplayed as casualties, other personnel—including members of the South Area Probationer Training Unit—spearheaded the multi-agency response, serving as first responders and incident coordinators.

Sergeant Bigger, the creator and lead organiser of the event, detailed the necessity of the joint exercise: "Our aim with this exercise was to stress test a number of operational policies and procedures, and allow us to assess interoperability between partner agencies in response to a major incident involving armoured police vehicles. It also allowed us, through the specifically designed scenario, to refine how we work together effectively and efficiently to save lives and reduce harm to both our colleagues and the public. "Sadly rammings of police vehicles are not uncommon and put the lives of officers at risk. In the event of such an incident – or indeed any other road traffic collision scenario involving an armoured car – it is essential each of the responding emergency services has the knowledge and understanding in place to effectively deal with the situation. To that end this training specifically set out to increase understanding and familiarisation of armoured police vehicles and how these could potentially affect any emergency response operation."

NIFRS Station Commander, Conor Weir, stated: "Multi-agency exercises like this are vital to enhance our operational capabilities. By training in realistic scenarios, this provides an invaluable opportunity to improve our coordination, strengthen communication and test operational readiness to respond effectively to road traffic collisions. Strong collaboration at these exercises is essential for ensuring we can deliver the best possible emergency response to our community when it matters most."

Heather Sharpe, NIAS Assistant Director of Operations, remarked: "The NIAS Hazardous Area Response Team (HART) recently took part in a training exercise with partner agencies to simulate a complex road traffic collision involving police armoured vehicles. This invaluable exercise provided HART personnel with experience in treating casualties in a complex scenario, strengthening interoperability with blue light colleagues and ensuring HART staff continue to be able to provide excellent patient care in the most demanding environments."

Sergeant Bigger added: "We are well prepared and well-rehearsed in readiness for these types of incidents, nonetheless this exercise was extremely valuable and there are learning points for all the agencies involved.

"We can always achieve more when working in partnership, and training together is invaluable in underpinning mutual understanding and effective collaboration, particularly in an emergency. We will continue to work together with our partners to ensure that we have robust multi-agency plans in place so we can respond to any incident wherever it happens."