THE horrific aftermath of a road traffic collision on a level crossing is what met fire crew from across Oldham during a realistic training exercise.

Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS) firefighters from Oldham, Chadderton and Hollins fire stations arrived at the scene at Northern Rail's Newton Heath train depot on Tuesday, December 3.

Organiser, Watch Manager Tony Morgan said: "By carrying out training in a real railway environment, it adds some realism and for that I'd like to thank Northern Rail - their staff acted as train and railway staff during the training.

"GMFRS volunteers acted as casualties and the scenario involved a car hit by a train, simulating an emergency incident at a level crossing.

"Crew worked well to cut the casualties free and although there are few level crossings left in Oldham, the increase in Metrolink lines in the area means the experience will be invaluable and everyone learnt a great deal."

The large scale training exercise involved around 15 firefighters and was part of GMFRS borough based training in Oldham.

Station Manager Glynn O'Reilly said: "The exercise was a great success in terms of improving the realism of our training.

"We had a volunteer who was cut free from the car and crew also had to locate a second casualty who was in the train carriage.

 "They carried out a systematic search of the four railway carriages and located and rescued our volunteers."

Stuart Draper, Engineering Director for Northern Rail said: "Helping Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service with exercises such as these builds on our working relationship with each other.

"It also allows the industry as a whole to understand how to work better in partnership with our emergency services."