A simulated crash staged on a local road provided transporters at Middleton-Cross Plains Area School District in Madison, Wis., the importance of keeping accurate records of students on board the school bus.
The scenario involved nine local emergency and law enforcement agencies responding within five minutes of a head-on crash involving a dump truck and school bus at approximately 9 a.m. local time on Aug. 5.
More than 30 students and nearly 20 parents volunteered to participate in the exercise, which was conducted on Nursery Drive between Deming Way and Forsythia St. The road was shut down for the purpose of the morning exercise, which Transportation Services Manager Steve Rammer said took two years to plan. This included including writing for a grant as well as functional and full scale exercises.
Twenty-six of the student actors portrayed Middleton High School or Kromrey Middle School students who were involved in the involving bus No. 9., and 11 of the students suffered mock injuries that required transport to one of two local hospitals.
By 9:25 a.m., the district had developed phone, text and voice mail communications to be sent to all families in the district, along with the Board of Education, district administrators and district staff. Families who had children involved in the accident received multiple calls and emails throughout the morning.
Superintendent Don Johnson served as the incident commander and met with local media to discuss the accident during an 11:30 a.m. news conference, which marked the conclusion of the exercise. After a short lunch, more than 100 personnel involved participated in a 45-minute debriefing at MHS.
“I think it was a great experience,” Johnson told the audience. “It was a better simulation that we even talked about.”
The exercise dictated that the bus driver was also seriously injured and rendered unconcious, which Rammer, transportation services said further complicated the response. He said the district learned that emergency personnel on scene do not seek to identify individual student victims but rather quickly evaluate injuries and assign a number that identifies the severity of their injuries.
At the STN EXPO in Reno last month during a session on planning mock-casualty exercises, Lt. Paul Hasenmeier of the City of Huron (Ohio) Fire Department shared with attendees the different color codes for injuries that most first responders use. A red triage tag indicates “Priority 1” attention for serious but salvageable life threatening injuries. These victims typically suffer life-threatening injuries such as head injuries, severe burns, severe bleeding, heart-attack, breathing-impaired, or internal injuries and are the first priority for treatment and transport to the hospital.
Yellow “Priority 2” triage tags indicate moderate to serious injuries that are not immediately life-threatening. These victims typically have suffered as fractures.
A green Priority 3 tag is assigned to “walking-wounded” victims who are not seriously injured. These victims either do not need treatment or are the lowest priority for treatment and transport to teh hospital. Generally, the walking wounded are escorted to a staging area out of the “hot zone” to await delayed evaluation and transportation.
In addition to testing the district’s ability to integrate into its Incident Command System structure, Hammer said the exercise also tested the district’s family reunification procedures and the need to transmit “timely, consistent and accurate information.”
District staff from the Transportation Center, district administrative office and a local middle school and high school also participated in the event. Hammer added that classrooms at the high school served as the Family Reunification Center and two hospitals.
“Parents were also staged at the high school and were directed to make contact with staff at the various facilities, including the site of the accident, as would occur in a real situation,” Hammer added.
Former WISC-TV anchor John Karcher served as one of the media members at the exercise and said he was impressed that everyone knew what role they had to play. He also offered a suggestion.
“Use the media to your advantage,” he said. “We’re going to be there anyway so we can help you get the information out quickly and accurately.”
