Article taken from:

Post-Crecent West
By Rachel Rausch

Safety is emphasis of school bus accident training
 

GREENVILLE — Residents have a new reason to feel that their children are safe.

That’s because members of the Greenville Fire Department participated in a special training program last Saturday that provided them an opportunity to get hands-on experience in the event of a school bus accident.

The fire department brought in Safe and Fast Extrication, a non-profit organization based in New Berlin, to conduct the daylong session.

The organization’s instructors share their experiences and expertise with response teams such as firefighters, EMT’s, First Responders and paramedics to teach life-saving techniques used at accident scenes — particularly those involving motor coaches, school buses, farm equipment and other large vehicles.

“As technology changes in transportation, the ways to rescue have to change, too,” said John Olshanski, executive director of Safe and Fast Extrication. “Our goal is to teach safer and faster techniques to remove accident and trapped victims.”

Three buses were on hand for the mock crash exercise. The buses were slated to be discontinued and were purchased from the Hortonville School District by the Greenville Fire Department.
In addition to about 20 members of the Greenville department, representatives from the towns of Dale, Center, Grand Chute and Stockbridge participated, as well as firefighters from the Outagamie County Regional Airport’s Fire Department.

“Overall, everyone was pleased with the program,” Greenville Fire Chief Dave Julius said. “We had a lot of opportunities to train with special tools and we’d certainly be better prepared at an accident scene.”

Olshanski said extrication in large vehicle crashes must be approached differently than extrication from a car. In the case of school bus accidents, factors such as the number of passengers and the possibility of special needs passengers must be taken into consideration.

“School bus crashes are real,” Olshanski said. “They happen in the state and they happen in the country. Every second could be life or death.”

The goal of Safe and Fast Extrication is to have rescue personnel uniformly trained throughout the state.

“It’s definitely a need for the state,” Olshanski said. “But, the Greenville community will be much safer.”