Emergency first-responders will receive valuable hands-on training this Friday on how to rescue passengers in the event of an accident using retired RTA buses. The training will take place Sept. 30 in the Crash Course Village at Calamityville in Fairborn. The media is invited to get behind-the-scenes footage of the training in action.
RTA donated 11 old fixed-route buses and 10 paratransit vehicles to Crash Course Village, a registered charitable organization dedicated to fire/rescue training for first responders. The dilapidated multi-passenger RTA vehicles are at least 12 years old and have been out of service for some time, but have found new life helping firefighters, paramedics and EMTs learn the best stabilization, extrication, and rescue techniques.
“We hope they never have to use these skills,” said Crash Course Village Administrator Phil Sinewe, a retired Moraine Fire Department shift commander and coordinator of the training. “But if our students are ever faced with the critical job of rescue in a heavy equipment or bus situation, they will know exactly how to use the equipment to save these people,” he said.
Training includes a number of areas, or “pits” in which 160 students will rotate throughout the two-day class. The RTA donated buses will be vital to helping rescuers in at least two demonstration areas for extrication and life-saving techniques, bus heavy lifting, and multi-passenger rescue scenarios.
Sinewe said that students come from all over the United States – and even other countries -- for this specialized training. Crash Course Village has expanded over the past 27 years into one of the premiere vehicle rescue training courses in the country. The training is invaluable, as students are not just observing; they are actively using the rescue and rigging equipment themselves, Sinewe said.
