Susan Barr
Kern Valley Sun

Screaming teenagers. Fake blood. Realistic wounds. All of these lent a convincing air of reality to last week’s bus disaster drill held at the Kern Valley High School.

ECHO instructor Teacher Tom Cormack directed students as they assumed positions as victims on, around and even under the bus, which in this year’s scenario, tumbled off a steep mountain road and landed on a switch back below.

Kern County Fire Department personnel assisted Kern Valley High School ECHO students as they transport a “wounded victim” to safety in last week’s mock disaster drill on the high school’ football field.

“I told my students to create mayhem,” Cormack said. “It’s one thing to practice helping people when they are nice and quiet in a classroom setting. It’s another thing entirely when someone is screaming in your face saying ‘I’m dying.’”

Cormack added that past students have had real life opportunity to use their skills when they came upon an actual accident. More than 60 ECHO (Exploring Careers in Health Occupations) program joined forces with the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), Kern County Fire Department and CARE Ambulance to stage the annual mock drill on the high school football field.

Juniors created the realistic-looking make-up, simulating the injuries associated with such an accident. They also acted as citizen CERT members who were first at the scene. Seniors, with training as CNAs and EMTs, were the citizens arriving on the scene and joining in to help take care of those evacuated from the bus

“It’s important for all of us to train and prepare for incidents like this because we all know they really do happen in real life across our nation and around the world,” observed Kern County Fire Captain Jonathan Trammel of Station 72 in Lake Isabella. “It’s really good for these students to see how first responders come onto a scene and set up an incident command center. But they have done really well setting up their triage area. It’s been a good taste of reality for them.”

“The biggest challenge for me,” said Incident Commander Kade Willis, a junior, “was keeping things in order and getting people to listen. I learned that it’s hard to control a mass.”

Injured victim Daniel Davis, a sophomore, said “I learned that if you are involved in an accident and you have injuries, you need to stay calm and still. If you don’t, you’ll probably make your injuries worse.”

According to ECHO Coordinator Vickie Stacy, this year’s drill was more realistic. The student teams were staggered. Instead of them all coming on the scene at the same time fully prepared, they had to come in and determine who was already in charge and the best way they could help.”

At the conclusion of the drill, a debriefing session was held. Both Cormack and Dean Ott, CERT Assistant Coordinator, commended the students for their good work and also provided some constructive criticism on areas where there was room for improvement.

“Like any drill some mistakes were made, but that is the whole idea behind them. If you make your mistakes during a drill, when an actual incident occurs, you’ll be less likely to make them,” Klein said.