First responders put to the test in 2022 Road Crash Rescue Challenge at Dubbo, video

This year 13 teams of first responders will be pitted against each other in the three-day multi-agency Road Crash Challenge at the Dubbo Showground.

As part of the challenge, crews from across NSW will participate in a variety of scenarios to perform controlled rescues, entrapped rescues, trauma challenges, CPR application, and an industrial and domestic rescue.

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While the rivalry is friendly, Fire and Rescue NSW Assistant Commissioner Rob McNeil said the challenge allowed competing agencies to sharpen their skills for real emergencies.

"These are people with different experiences, from different events and by bringing these brains together and working in an emergency situation they can learn more together," he said.

"The competition is fantastic, because it puts them under the same pressure that they are under when they go to a real crash.

"It often helps generate new ideas and concepts that we can test and put into action to save lives on our roads."

In particular the challenge will focus on time critical scenarios -where crews will have 30 minutes to get their patient with critical injuries to hospital - and technical scenarios where trapped motorists will need to be cut free.

"We have technical pit and a timed pit. Both are 30 minutes and crews will have to get their patient out and keep their patient alive," Assistant Commissioner McNeil said.

"We try and trick crews too, there's a lot of little tricks we put in there - such as electrical wires on the car and unstable telegraph poles on the car, we might have a baby dummy under the seat they need to check for, because all these things have happened in the past."

Crews from Dubbo, Forster, Wyong and Ulladulla, Port Macquarie, Port Stephens, Berry and the Snowy Mountains FRNSW, the NSW State Emergency Service, Volunteer Rescue Association, Rural Fire Service and even a team from the Victorian Country Fire Authority will be evaluated and assessed.

The top three teams will then have the opportunity to participate in the Australasian Road Rescue Challenge in Tamworth in July.

The challenge runs until Sunday. The general public are welcome to spectate the event from 9am - 4pm with free entry. Winners will be announced on Tuesday evening.