School bus crash simulation tests response time

Batavia School District 101, the Batavia fire and police departments and Illinois Central Bus Co. collaborated Wednesday morning to produce an emergency training exercise to simulate the collision of a vehicle with a school bus carrying students. The simulation was at Papermill Hill Drive and Barkei Drive.

“This training exercise is the first transportation crisis simulation that multiple agencies are collectively producing with Batavia public schools,” Superintendent Jack Barshinger said. “We are proactively testing and evaluating emergency response systems to ensure that each agency is fully prepared to respond and execute systems in the event of a real crisis.”

Along with four “victims” from Rotolo Middle School’s eighth-grade first aid class, the training exercise also involved officials from Tri-Com Central Dispatch and Southern Fox Valley & Central DuPage Emergency Medical Services System.

The simulation tested communication, multiagency coordination, emergency protocols, and patient triage, removal and placement.