A DRAMATIC collision between a car and a cyclist designed to encourage children to make a vital 999 call will take centre stage at this year's Crucial Crew extravaganza.

The scenario, created by police officers from West Mercia Constabulary's Herefordshire Division, involves a car and driver which has collided with a bicycle and its rider.

The cyclist, played by a volunteer, is lifeless and the driver of the car is seriously injured and trapped in the wreckage.

Children will arrive on the scene and with support, advice and encouragement from the experts on hand, will be taken through potentially life-saving actions.

This will include making an emergency telephone call from a nearby phonebox to a staged communications officer, a member of the division's support staff based in Hereford.

Crucial Crew is all about teaching children from across Herefordshire vital lessons in safety and potentially life-threatening situations.

The lessons they learn are kept simple in an effort to ensure that they can be remembered and, if necessary, used in the future.

The children, all in their final year at primary school, will circulate around eight different scenarios tackling issues such as drug abuse, farm, gas and home safety, and what to do in the event of a fire.

And for the first time the Fire Service will be using its mock fire room, which simulates a real house fire.

Crucial Crew has been extended this year and will run for five days instead of the usual two, from next Monday to Friday, September 26 in the village of Bosbury near Ledbury.

The whole village hands itself across to the event and becomes a hive of activity for the week.