Responders convene in Ft. Hall for emergency training

First responders from at least eight counties are in Fort Hall Friday for a two-day emergency training session.

The Regional Readiness Rendezvous kicked off Friday at the Shoshone-Bannock Events Center. This year the focus is on bus crashes.

Those attending will spend Friday doing an eight-county risk assessment as well as listening to speakers talk about their experiences responding to bus crashes.

Saturday they plan to simulate a bus crash and practice their response.

“That’s one of the main hazards in our area. We have a lot of high winds on the highways. In certain areas there are just a lot of auto accidents and potential accidents,” said Nicholas Scarborough, the all-hazards planner at Southeastern Idaho Public Health.

Scarborough said that Saturday representatives from hospitals will take part in a patient tracking exercise using the simulated bus crash.