If you picked up your children from Jasper High School on Wednesday night, you may have noticed a fire truck and other first responders. But don’t worry it was just a drill.
State Police, the Jasper Police and Fire Departments, EMS, dispatchers, and hospital officials took part in a special exercise training them for the unthinkable…a school bus rollover accident.
Retired Southeast Dubois County Schools Superintendent and former Indiana State School Bus Committee member, Richard Allen, led the exercise and explains why training for emergencies like this is so important.
“It’s always good to go through an exercise where we have a bus incident and see how everyone is going to react,” he says.
Allen says two Jasper Elementary School students volunteered to appear ‘injured’ to help the simulation seem more life-like for firefighters.
“We had the firefighters actually put them on a backboard with a cervical collar and extricate them out of the school bus. It also gave firefighters the chance to see how cramped it is inside a school bus.,” Allen says.
The training also helped first responders get more familiar with the equipment.
“We talked to them about the number of padded seats on a school bus and the rules for equipment on a school bus. The Indiana State School Bus Committee dictates all of the equipment that goes on a school bus,” Allen says.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, school buses are one of the safest ways to travel. Allen explains why.
“Part of that is because we operate a school bus for 180 days- an hour and a half in the morning and afternoon. So it’s not like we’re on the roads all the time. But more and more, there’s the school in the summer and activities in the evening. It’s important for our community to know that we train and plan for these types of situations,” Allen says.
Allen says he has traveled to various school districts around the county to train school officials and first responders for school bus accidents. His next stop will be in Ireland.
