First responders work together to help save lives in tour bus crash

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — It was an all hands on deck situation in Pembroke as emergency crews throughout Western New York stepped into help during Friday’s mass casualty crash.

“The first responders on scene did amazing work, saved lives because of what they did,” said Niagara County Fire Coordinator and Director of Emergency Services Jonathan Schultz.

Emergency crews throughout Western New York train all year preparing for the worst. Friday in Genesee County, their training was put to the test after a tour bus rolled over and crashed on the I-90 with 54 people on board.

Multiple agencies throughout the region were called in to help, including first responders in Niagara County.

“Yes, there are county borders but they really don’t exist across those lines, the fire departments, EMS agencies, law enforcement agencies, they’re always working together, training and preparing for unfortunate events like this,” said Schultz.

Schultz knew his team was walking into a mass casualty situation. Officials said everyone on board suffered some type of injury and five people were killed.

“You have to put the emotions asides, that’s where your training comes in,” said Schultz. “You start triaging the patients in a case like this, looking for ones you know you can get out of the area, ones that are not hurt that bad … and as more providers arrive on scene, you start putting them to work.

“The training does a great job helping us be ready for it, but unfortunately, when those incidents happen, that first little bit, it’s really hard to get a grasp of what’s happening, in the chaos of the event, the magnitude of the event.”

Schultz credits the dispatchers for organizing the chaos as both sides of the thruway were shut down for hours while crews rescued people from the wreckage.

“Our unsung heroes, our dispatchers,” said Schultz. “They take the 911 calls, they take the emergency calls, they do all the work. Genesee County dispatchers, Niagara County dispatchers, Erie County dispatchers, they all work together because on scene the incident commander is … requesting resources all the time, requesting more ambulances, requesting more fire department.”

This joint effort with multiple agencies and first responders, Schultz says, is what ultimately helped save lives.

“The coordination, the collaboration and the team work, it is amazing of what they did,” he said. “As hard of a situation that it is, as stressful a situation as it is, everyone who was involved should be proud of what they did.”

Source

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)