Crime & Safety

Tolland Participates In Mass Casualty Preparedness Drill

The regional drill took place at Rockville High School.


At about 9 a.m. on Wednesday, things began to take shape at Rockville High School.

A car was on its hood near the football stadium and a "victim" was on the ground beside it. 

Other victims were getting wounds made up inside the school cafeteria. 

Police and emergency management officials were briefing the media. 

It was all part of a major regional mass casualty training exercise that was designed to prepare first-responders for the real thing. 

The drill was dubbed "I.M.P.A.C.T. 2013" for "Integrated Municipal Preparedness and Collaborative Training." The victims were dressed with moulaged injuries and props to make the scene as realistic as possible.  

The drill involved  more than 100 police officers, fire officials, EMS responders and school officials from across the region. They did not know the scenario in advance. 

The event was staged in conjunction with the Capitol Region Council of Governments, which provided partial funding for the exercise. "Subject-matter" experts from across the region directed and evaluated the exercise.

Here's how the staged scenario unfolded. 

Just before 10 a.m., while an "assembly" was taking place at the football stadium, a single automobile made its way to the back of the Rockville High School campus and slammed into the rear of the bleachers at the football stadium, spraying metal seating, metal support beams, fencing and people all over the grassy knoll behind the stands.  

At 10 a.m., an emergency call is placed and a school resource officer is the first on the scene in about a minute. He encounters hurt, confused and moaning patients and a snuggle victim next to the vehicle, too young to drive. 

Eight minutes later, a "soft lockdown" is imposed to keep students in their classrooms. As police and firefighters arrive on the scene, they plan out a strategy to find the driver, an intoxicated woman who has abandoned the car and injured child passenger and is "wandering" inside the high school building.
A parade of fire trucks, police cars and ambulances - including one from Tolland - enters the scene. Triage areas are set up immediately and first-responders begin going from victim-to-victim to assess their injuries. 

At 10:25 p.m., an injured student, who identifies himself as Bob Smith, says the car drove into the rear of the bleachers during a pep rally. He is bleeding from facial wounds. Within a minute, a school system administrator cuts off the conversation and makes the media member go back to a staging area. 

At 10:50 a.m., a media member places a call to Vernon police headquarters and a dispatcher estimates the victim total is between 30 and 40. A few minutes later, the dispatcher says the driver of the car has been found and confirms she was not armed. 

Ambulances are bringing victims to area hospitals. Life Star helicopter arrives and lands on a soccer field.

At about 11:30, in a joint media briefing staged by police and school officials, it is announced that eight people were injured critically and 13 others suffered less-severe injuries. 

The "soft lockdown" continues just to keep the hallways empty inside the school, officials say.

An EMS official later confirms that four of the victims were dead at the scene and another died sometime later. 

A baby who happened to be on the field at the time of the assembly was taken by the chopper to an area hospital with critical injuries, the official says. 

The scene is secured at noon as Life Star takes off and the last of the ambulances pulls away. Police say charges against the driver would be announced at the completion of the investigation.

After an intense de-briefing session, Vernon Emergency Management Director Michael Purcaro says most of the exercise was solid. One area that was adequate but that might need improvement is initial communication, he says.

A comprehensive after-action report is being compiled, he says. 

Participating agencies were State Homeland Security, Town of Vernon, Vernon Public Schools, Capitol Region Council of Governments, Connecticut Department of Public Health, Johnson Memorial Hospital, United Steel, Life Star (Hartford Hospital), Ellington Fire Department, East Windsor Ambulance, South Windsor Ambulance, Coventry Fire Department, Somers Fire/Ambulance, UCONN Fire Department, Ellington Ambulance, Tolland Fire Department, American Medical Response, Tolland County Dispatch, Ambulance Service of Manchester, Enfield Ambulance and Marinello School of Makeup.


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