Posted By Zoe Barnett I am planning to run some training sessions for school governors, the aim of which will be to get them to see the "hidden" factors in a serious accident (poor communication, lack of management commitment and so on.) Ideally I'd like to base the session on a real life accident scenario and get them to investigate the incident, giving them a little bit of information at a time and using real defects in systems and so forth. Can anyone let me have details of a suitable accident on which I can base the session? All names and places will of course be changed to preserve confidentiality. Many thanks.

Posted By Laurie Zoe Happy to say I have no real accidents to quote, but I set up an "accident" for our Media & Comms students some time ago. The scenario was that some contractors were working on the roof of the Student Common Room when their tar boiler and some propane cylinders went through, killing two students, seriously injuring some others, and starting a fire which involved the cylinders, and therefore evacuation of neighbours. (I am ex-military and have much experience of setting up exercise "incidents", plus a very devious mind!) The actual exercise was the subsequent press conference at which I played myself, and the Principal was played by a senior member of staff. It was obvious that the College had employed cowboys who had overloaded the roof, and who cared little about H&S. We were fighting a losing battle trying to prove due diligence, and damage limitation. This sounds as though it may be the sort of thing you need. Just for the record, these were senior HND Journalism students, and gave me a really hard time! I actually had sweating palms! I learned a lot, and can thoroughly recommend something like this to anyone who may have to face the press. Those of you outside the education sector will probably find your local college only too willing to help Laurie