The Whitley County Board of Education recognized Whitley County Emergency Medical Services (EMS) during the April 16 meeting as a community partner following a recent school bus crash involving 34 students.
“We often call throughout a school year for the EMS to come to one of our schools,” said Superintendent John Siler, explaining that out of 4,000 students in the district, some students are diabetic or may have seizures. “They always come and they always take wonderful care of our kids.”
On April 6, a school bus carrying 34 students was involved in a crash on Cumberland Falls Highway. EMS responded quickly, set up a triage area and evaluated each student.
“What a blessing that was because we are educators and we’re transportation directors. We are not EMS,” said Siler. “We were very fortunate to have those folks show up when they did and to take such good care of our kids.”
No serious injuries were reported and all students returned to school the following day.
Siler along with Transportation Coordinator Larry Brown, Safety Coordinator Patrick Bowlin, representatives from Whitley County EMS and Emergency Management Director Jerry Rains met to discuss how communication could improve during emergencies.
One EMS worker suggested having a different channel.
“We have handheld radios and we have bus radios, but it got pretty chaotic,” said Siler. “We were trying to communicate with all the buses… we were also trying to communicate emergency issues. We’re thinking about now possibly loading another channel onto our handheld. That way, if there is an accident, we can just do an all call to all 60 buses.”
Whitley County School Resource Officer (SRO) Mike Lawson praised EMS workers for their calm demeanor during the incident.
“What impressed me the most with these folks is they remain calm and that relaxed our kids,” said Lawson.
