Check out these action-packed shots of an emergency training event in Van Buren County, Mich., in which participants got to experience what it feels like to be in an overturned school bus as well as one filled with smoke. Submitted by Mark Niewoonder, transportation supervisor for Van Buren Intermediate School District.
Emergency Training in an Overturned Bus
During the training event, sponsored by Michigan’s Van Buren Intermediate School District (ISD) in conjunction with Lawrence Township Emergency Services, one bus was turned over on the right side, with a wheelchair secured and a life-size mannequin belted in. Emergency personnel practiced cutting open the vehicle to simulate rescue efforts.
Mark Niewoonder, transportation supervisor for Van Buren ISD, said that participants expressed how the training event changed their perceptions. One reported not having realized “how far off the ground a driver would be in a [rollover] situation.”
Staff members were to exit the bus in the prescribed emergency evacuation techniques.
One training participant said afterward that “the student strapped into the wheelchair was a real eye-opener for me.”
A second bus was used to practice emergency evacuation of a smoke-filled bus. Emergency personnel seated transportation staff in the bus and then filled the vehicle with non-toxic vapor.
Other activities during the day included demonstrating the proper use of a fire extinguisher.
Each participant extinguished a practice liquid fire.
Another participant extinguishes a practice liquid fire.
Each participant was also instructed on the proper use and placement of highway flares — both lighting and extinguishing the device.