Brandon Twp.- There’s been a serious accident. A Brandon school bus rests on its side–many students are injured, some fatalities, multiple causalities.
Brandon Fire Department along with Groveland, Independence and Oakland township fire departments participated on Sunday morning near the Brandon School District bus garage in a mock mass casualty scenario. Inside the school bus were youngsters from Cub Scout packs 44 of Oxford and pack 531 of Ortonville with a variety of mock injuries. About 12 emergency medical technician students from Oakland Community College also participated.
‘A mass casualtiy incident can happen and has,? said Bob McArthur, Brandon Fire Chief.
‘This practice is important to determine where our need are. From today’s training we can study what we did right and wrong.?
The cost of the training was very minimal to the department says McArthur services were provided by Buyers Auto in Clarkston and Bridge Lake Auto in Davisburg removed both the school bus and burned out car.
The mock accident fills a variety of training needs says David Kwapis, Brandon Firefighter who organized the event.
‘It’s training for mass casualties in this case 17 different injuries,? he said. ‘With this many injuries we need to call for mutual aid from other fire departments. Part of the training is to over-tax the capacity of a single fire department and then join with others.?
School bus safety is necessary due to the number of students that ride district buses each day during the school year. According to a 2004 transportation report Brandon buses travel about 450,000 miles each school year, with more than 115 routes each day transporting more than 2,000 students each day on approximately 28 buses.