Bloody display at centre

Many Saturday shoppers were shocked to find a car accident in the middle of the Coles Shopping Centre on Saturday.

There was a woman lying on the floor, with blood on her legs and arms and what looked like a particularly nasty gash on her leg.

Inside a Mini Moke was a man, with what appeared to be blood coming from a head wound.

A pram had been knocked over in front of the car and a baby (actually a doll) had been tipped out of it.

St John Ambulance volunteers treated the mock accident as if it had been a real call out and demonstrated to shoppers how they react at the scene of an accident.

The 'baby' was revived, the driver of the vehicle (Chris Gerard) had his 'head injuries' bandaged and the prostrate injured woman (Lauraine Wanstall) had her 'leg injury' bandaged and was placed on a trolley for transport to the waiting ambulance.

A volunteer-manned stall sold first aid kits and gave out information about St John Ambulance.

The service is desperately short of volunteers and is trying to encourage people to join up.

St John offers training for volunteer ambulance officers, drivers and support staff.

People, who don't want to be part of the 'blood and gore' side of the operation, can still contribute by helping with office work, manning radios and other duties at the sub-centre.

For further information call 9168 2844.