Preparing For The Worst: A Mass Casualty Drill In Sandy Hook

By Andrew Gorosko

More than 60 people braved an unusual April snowstorm Sunday to practice for an incident they hope never happens – a multi-vehicle school bus accident with multiple casualties, including three fatalities.

Behind the Sandy Hook Firehouse on Riverside Road workers had created a horrible tableau.

The front end of a school bus had collided with a sedan, after which another auto drove beneath the rear end of the school bus. Another motorist, seeking to evade the three-vehicle accident, took evasive action, but lost control of his auto, causing it to roll over alongside the bus.

On signal, a dispatcher issued a radio call alerting volunteer firemen and ambulance corpsmen that the mass casualty drill was starting.

Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire and Rescue Company Chief Bill Halstead, the incident commander at the drill, arrived at the scene, and radioed in his assessment of the situation.

Sandy Hook firefighters, Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps staffers, and Hawleyville firefighters came to the scene and practiced their emergency skills as it became apparent that a serious situation was at hand.

Chief Halstead said firefighters staged the accident so that the auto behind the bus had jammed shut the bus’s rear emergency door, requiring firefighters to cut it open with emergency tools. Also, firemen had to pry open a stuck front door on the bus.

Chief Halstead gave participants high marks for the exercise, explaining that it provided firefighters with an opportunity to learn how to work with extrication tools on school buses damaged in accidents.

“It was a learning process… The whole drill was excellent,” he said.

Firefighters had hoped to set the bus on fire at the end of the drill to learn how to handle school bus fires, but the inclement weather prevented that aspect of the training project, the chief said.

Before the drill, Keith Shafto of Danbury Hospital gave a talk to firefighters and ambulance corpsmen on mass casualty accidents, explaining how to handle such harrowing incidents.

Following the exercise, participants discussed the simulation, receiving critiques from organizers on how their performance can be improved.

Hawleyville Fire Chief Joe Farrell and Maria Sadlier of the Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps led their organizations in the drill. 

 B.J. Halstead, a Sandy Hook firefighter, started planning for the drill last November. Ryder Student Transportation provided an old school bus from Bristol for the practice session. Hilario’s Service Center and Newtown Exxon provided help in setting up the accident scene.

Newtown is a place where many school buses travel the roads, B.J. Halstead said. The simulated accident provided firefighters with some practical training in handling mass casualty accidents and allowed ambulance staffers to practice triage techniques, he added.

“I think it went very well,” he said.