Year 12 students from Falmouth and Penryn spent a day at the Riviera Lodge training centre in Penryn learning about driver safety.

The Road Safety unit at Cornwall county council organised the day to show teenagers what would happen if they crashed, in an effort to reduce the number of collisions involving younger drivers in Cornwall.

Firefighters from Falmouth fire station’s Red Watch demonstrated how they would cut up a car after a crash, which involved them breaking the windows and taking the roof off the car.

Carol Wright from the Road Safety unit said: “It is aimed at 16 to 17-year-olds and it is teaching them the consequences of driving unsafely. We have been doing the Young Drivers Programme for about nine years and this is the first time that I have done a “cut out” as part of it.”

She added: “Everyone has been brilliant about it and I am really thrilled with how it has gone."

Last year there were 17 casualties in the 17 to 24 age group from car crashes.