School Bus MCI Drill

All patients will be transported to the Montrose Memorial Hospital ED to continue the drill as an in-house test of the hospital's external MCI plan or to the Mountain Medical Clinic to practice rural trauma training program skills.

Because this is a school bus "accident" involving 20-30 pediatric patients, plus the bus driver, scene security and patient tracking will be an especially serious issue. As most of us already know, word of the accident will rapidly spread via the "mountain telegraph" system that exists in all rural communities, and the scene and two receiving facilities will be inundated with relatives, caregivers and neighbors, all trying to learn about their children.

ADMINISTRATIVE TIMELINE

An initial proposal to produce this FTX was presented to the Ouray BOCC in November and permission was granted to proceed. The more formalized and in-depth scenario draft is scheduled for delivery to the BOCC on Monday, December 21, 2009, along with many of the invited and participating agencies for review and comment. OC EMS is requesting that suggestions, questions or issues not addressed by this document be sent back to us no later than January 21st so they can be evaluated and acted on in a timely manner.

THE SCENARIO

A school bus transporting 20-30 children swerves off CR 1 and rolls down a 50¡Ç-60¡Ç embankment, coming to a stop at the bottom of an arroyo. A passing motorist observes tire tracks leading off the road and discovers the school bus. Because there is no cell phone service in that part of the county, the driver leaves his passenger at the scene to wait for emergency vehicles and drives into the town of Colona, where he can get a cell phone signal and call the accident in to the CSP dispatching center in Montrose. The CSP dispatchers will then relay the information to the Montrose sheriff's dispatch center to dispatch the appropriate rescue, LE and EMS resources. Emergency responders will respond to the scene on a narrow, two lane-wide dirt road, which is the type of location that can easily become gridlocked by emergency vehicles if not adequately managed and staged.

FTX LOCATION

When we were originally scouting for a location for the Red Mountain Bus FTX in 2007, Ridgway's Marshal, D. Scott, suggested the county lot and Mall Road. While that was not a workable site to simulate a bus going off the Million Dollar Highway, it was perfect for simulating a bus going off CR 1 and down one of the arroyos. The Ouray BOCC and Chris Miller, director for Ouray County Road and Bridge Department, have given us permission to utilize this site.

OBTAINING A SCHOOL BUS

Ridgway bus supervisor Maggie Graff has facilitated donation of a surplus bus that is being decommissioned from the Ridgway School District. The bus has already been moved to the Ouray County Road & Bridge facility, and she is having the Ridgway School District sign the bus title over to Ouray County. (Maggie has also indicated that the district has two more buses that will be decommissioned over the next several years that may be available for donation for future FTXs/training scenarios.)

To make this FTX as "green" as possible and minimize any environmental impact, all fluids will be drained from the bus prior to rolling it down the training site. We do not want any fluids to leak or create any sort of negative environmental impact. We also want to eliminate/minimize the chance for any hazardous materials exposures to FTX participants and observers. Chris Miller has indicated that he will have his road and bridge mechanics take care of this so the bus is "dry" by the FTX date.

PARTICIPANTS

Participating agencies/stakeholders would include:

• Ouray County (OC) EMS - First Responder Corps, ambulances and EMS administrators/ALS
• OC EMS - Squad 11
• Montrose FD extrication team
• OC Sheriff's Office
• Ouray Mountain Rescue Team (?)
• OCSO's communications van/mobile command post
• Colorado State Patrol Troop 5C (Montrose post)
• Ridgway Marshal's Office
• Ouray Volunteer Fire Dept.
• Ridgway Volunteer Fire Dept.
• Log Hill Volunteer Fire Dept.
• Ridgway State Park LE rangers & EMTs (?)
• Mutual Aid Ambulances from: Montrose Fire & EMS, Telluride Fire & EMS, Norwood Fire & EMS, Silverton EMS, Montrose Memorial ED, The Mountain Medicine Clinic.
• 20-30 high school & middle school-age volunteers to be victims; 1 adult to role-play the injured bus driver; and 50-70 role-players to be parents/concerned relatives of the victims.
• Two school buses & drivers to retrieve the victims
• Careflight of Montrose will be invited to participate. The decision on whether to incorporate them into the FTX will depend on their willingness to participate and weather conditions on the day of the FTX.