Cardiff University

Road Traffic Collision Simulation Event

Events Videos, Social Content, Education

Directed by Mac Nixon

30,000 people were killed or seriously injured on UK roads in 2022. This harrowing statistic highlights the need for trained first responders.

It's hard to prepare students for this stuff by giving them a book to read. Cardiff Uni had another idea.

The road traffic collision simulation event is an annual day of planned chaos hosted by Cardiff Uni in partnership with local fire, ambulance and police services.

Months of planning culminate in this adrenaline-filled "real" life recreation life-threatening scenarios, featuring overturned vehicles, screaming pedestrians and eye-watering injuries.

“A realistic RTC scenario has been invaluable and has inspired many of our junior trainees to consider pre-hospital medicine as a career.

—Tim Johnson, Deputy Programme Director of Cardiff University School of Medicine Centre for Medical Education

We pitched an impactful 90sec film, edited like a trailer, with a camerawork brief of "you're a stringer at the scene of a chaotic crash, get in there and get the story"

The uni approached us with a relatively open brief - they wanted event coverage of the day to show it to potential undergrads as part of their recruitment programme. After seeing examples from previous days, we suggested going for something more impactful - something to shock and exhilarate. Think Netflix trailer meets 24 hours in A&E.

Shot in one (very warm) day, we assembled a small, high-impact crew armed with drones, very large zoom lenses and a tonne of close-contact microphones to capture every element of the day as candidly as possible. Hearing from student observers as well as real-life responders was crucial in creating a realistic portrayal of the day.

Alongside a hero deliverable, we pitched a suite of micro, social-first trailers which would be rolled out on stories and reels, to drum up some hype and channel traffic towards the full film, which is accompanied by information on how to apply for courses.