St. Mary’s City Schools in Ohio held school bus emergency training for drivers, local first responders, parents and students prior to the start of the new school year to prepare them for the unthinkable.
Dan Grothause, the district’s transportation supervisor, said the event was part of the first area school transportation driver’s workshop hosted by St. Mary’s. Each year, a different local district provides in-service transportation training for the county. It was also sponsored by the Auglaize County Educational Service Center.
A transit-style school bus donated by Cardinal Bus Sales in Lima was tipped onto its right side to simulate the crash aftermath. Six district school bus drivers participated in the Aug. 15 training session, one as the driver of the fateful bus and five others as parents. Grothause said 11 students from 6th to 12th grade played the part of injured students on the bus. First responders practiced cutting into the bus to extricate passengers and provided mock first aid.
Meanwhile, about 200 staff members from neighboring districts watched the event, Grothause added. St. Mary’s employs a total of 46 certified bus drivers.
“We are fortunate in our area to have an excellent working relationship with all first responders, so collaboration was simple. All it took was one phone call and the whole project was placed into motion,” Grothause told School Transportation News. “What started with two agencies participating quickly grew to nine.”
The emergency personnel on scene were from St. Marys Township Fire; St. Marys City Fire; St. Marys City Police; Auglaize County Sheriff Department; Ohio State Highway Partrol; Wapakoneta City Fire; New Knoxville Fire; Joint Township District Memorial Hospital Patient Transport; and New Bremen Fire.
Grothause added that the mock emergency was actually the second he helped organize. His first occurred about 10 years ago when he helped organize a mock collision between a train and a school bus for St. Mary’s and local first responders. A veteran of the student transportation industry since the 1970s, Grothause is also a member of the Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC), oversees the St. Mary’s school safety committee and recently became a certified FEMA trainer for the G364 Multi-hazard Planning for Schools program.
St. Mary’s City Schools transport 1,500 students daily on 26 school buses.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article indicated St. Mary’s was near Cleveland. The city is actually located closer to Dayton and Columbus.
