Saturday morning we were at the Flomaton Speedway to cover multiple fire departments cutting up old school buses. It wasn't play time, it was time to teach and train firemen how to react in the event we have a major school bus crash with children trapped inside.
Ben Roe, who serves as the Barnett Crossroads Volunteer Fire Department chief and also works as a state trooper, said what he's said before – It's not if, but when we will see a school bus crash in this area.
We hope Roe is wrong in his choice of 'if' and 'when' in terms of a school bus crash, but we know he's right that we need first responders trained to respond if we ever have a major disaster involving a school bus.
As he pointed out, school buses are well designed and well built due to the 'precious' cargo they travel with each day when schools are in session. That's the good news. The bad news is that due to the well-designed and well-built buses, it makes it more difficult for first responders to use their tools to cut their way inside to rescue trapped students.
As we watched we heard instructions like “don't cut there” because it would take too long. Firefighters and first responders learned the best places to use their jaws and saws to get inside the bus the fastest way possible.
They had buses standing up, they had buses on their sides and they had buses upside down trying to simulate would could happen should a crash occur.
We too often take our volunteer firemen for granted. We saw many of them out there Saturday training to learn how to address a school bus crash when many would have rather been hunting a turkey or drowning a cricket.
Hat's off to Roe for setting this training up and hats off to the many volunteers who donate their time and talents to make us all safer.
