IT'S the kind of situation you hope you will never be faced with – a head-shaped smash in the windscreen, blood pouring down your face and sirens blaring.

But it is a scene confronted by firefighters on a regular basis when they are called out to crash scenes.

I was invited to take part in an accident reconstruction at Castleford fire station as a victim of a two-car smash – complete with horrifying injuries.
As I sat down in the front passenger seat with fake blood dripping down my nose, I was told that I was conscious and had  broken my arm.
I'll never win any awards for my performance, but from the moment the sirens came screeching onto the scene adrenalin was pumping through my veins and everything was real.

"Hello, are you okay? Can you tell me where it hurts?"
I felt a pair of gloves reach for my chin and forehead, holding my head still.
I could not see who it was, but the voice told me his name was John and he would be staying with me until I left the vehicle.

After establishing I had a sore neck and arm, I was put in a neck brace and given a mask for some pain relief.
In the meantime, other firefighters were removing the windows so they could cut the roof off the car.

For some reason I'd expected to hear loud whirring machinery and to see sparks flying, but all it took were some specialist pair of cutters to prise it off.
Despite all the blood pouring down the left side of my face, I was probably the least injured in the crash.

The driver, Sue, had smashed her head against the windscreen and had initially been unconscious.
John said that while I could probably make my way out of the car, she would need to be removed on a board.
A group of firefighters worked together to carefully lift her out of the car, while keeping her body still.

One she had got out, the back seat passenger and I were able to walk from the vehicle.
I could then see the group working to free the driver of the van, which had collided with the car I was in.

While it was fascinating to see the firefighters at work – and just how quickly, efficiently and professionally they dealt with an emergency – it is not a situation I would ever want to find myself in for real.
I had no pain, it was just fake blood and it was not a race against time to get the seriously-injured casualty to hospital.

The reality would be terrifying and the reconstruction opened my eyes to the carnage and chaos caused by a car smash.