The Russian Government
Major road traffic accident response drill has taken place in Priluzsky district in the Republic of Komi. The rescue operation was practiced on the federal motorway R-176 Vyatka. The drill had two stages.
The first one practiced notification of emergency services about the road traffic accident. A dispatcher, who was the first to receive the signal, without wasting a single second, was to inform the office of interior, fire service, rescuers and ambulance. Moreover, his report should have been as clear and informative as possible.
Having received the information, all emergency services, not wasting a single minute, set off to the accident scene. According to the scenario, the accident involved several vehicles – a school bus and three cars. One of the cars caught fire on collision. Several people, including the school children in the bus, were hurt. The bus driver and that of one of the cars were killed in the accident.
The second stage started on the motorway, on the accident scene. Officers of the Traffic Police arrived first. They quickly set up roadblocks and cordoned off the accident scene. Fighters of 62nd fire station of the federal fire service, the rescuers of Priluzsky emergency rescue team SPAS-Komi and paramedics arrived a minute later. The rescuers used hydraulic tools and in a minute cut open the car body to extricate the people.
According to the scenario, several injured school children stayed in the bus. Some of them received first medical aid from the rescuers, but others needed additional aid of paramedics. Some of the injured needed only bandage and aid from a psychologist, for that there was a special tent and a heating point. Observers from the republican Disaster Medicine Center were watching closely the actions of the paramedics. The unhurt schoolchildren were evacuated to safety.
All actions of the emergency services were coordinated by an on-site emergency operations center. All information on the nature of the accident, the number of the injured, necessary forces and equipment went there.
After the drill the organizers and observers shared their impressions, spoke about mistakes and shortcomings they had noticed during the drill. However, the general estimation was positive.
