Bus Roll Over Injures Children - Brings Parents to the Scene

It was a parent's worst nightmare. Some, while waiting at parking lot to meet their children who were returning from a summer camp, received word that the school bus they were travelling in had rolled over on the highway. Others heard it on the car radio, some via text messages and cell phone calls.

What came next has the potential to be a nightmare for emergency responders and planners... concerned parents rushing directly to the scene.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2009/07/11/10102906-sun.html

If you can expect it, you better plan for it. Whether you are planning for incidents involving schools, daycares, camps, school buses, amusement parks, zoos, or any location where children gather, EM planners need to consider anxious and frightened parents showing up demanding to be with their children, wanting to know immediately where they are and how they are.

Incident Managers need to assign personnel to set up a staging location for the parents, be prepared to provide accurate information quickly, and have a plan to bring parent and child together as soon as possible. Plan for the media to target worried and anxious parents.

While the July 11th incident had a good ending with all of the children being released from hospital by the 12th, the risk of a more serious incident is very real.

If you don't have a plan to deal with such incidents, there is another job for this week's task list.