11/04/2025
Simulated Personal Injury School Bus Accident Scheduled for Thursday Morning, November 6
Nov 04, 2025
Dwayne Page
Charlie Parker, DeKalb County Emergency Management Coordinator
The Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) will stage a “mock disaster” drill on Thursday morning, November 6 simulating a personal injury school bus accident on Allen’s Ferry Road near the Little League Ballpark.
The exercise will begin at 9:15 a.m.
Charlie Parker, DeKalb County Emergency Management Coordinator has provided a detailed scenario overview and objectives of the staged event as follows:
Scenario Overview
A DeKalb County School bus transporting six students and a driver has reportedly run off the roadway near the Little League Ballpark on Allens Ferry Road. The bus is on its side in a ditch with multiple injuries reported. This will serve as a disaster exercise to test local emergency response coordination and communication between responding agencies.
Exercise Objectives
·Evaluate interagency coordination among Fire, EMS, Law Enforcement, Rescue, TDOT, School Officials, and the Hospital.
· Practice safe and effective patient triage, treatment, and transport procedures.
·Test communication protocols during a multi-agency response.
·Reinforce the proper use of ‘This is part of the disaster exercise’ during simulated communications.
Participating Agencies
·DeKalb County Emergency Management Agency (EMA)
·Smithville Fire Department
·DeKalb County Rescue Squad
·DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department and Smithville Police Department
·DeKalb County EMS
·Dekalb Emergency Communications 911
·DeKalb County Board of Education
·TDOT
·NHC Healthcare
·Saint Thomas DeKalb Hospital
·WJLE Radio
·DCHS students
·Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA)
Exercise Details
Scenario Start: 9:15 AM
A designated caller will contact 911 to report a school bus accident on Allens Ferry Road near the Little League Ballpark.
Each time the call or any radio traffic referencing the scenario is repeated, it must include the phrase:” This is part of the disaster exercise.”
TDOT will display a message board in the area notifying the public:
“CAUTION – Training Exercise in Progress.”
All responding units will respond NON-EMERGENCY, obeying all traffic laws and operating as they would on a normal call.
Response Expectations
·Law Enforcement: Secure the scene, manage traffic, and assist with accountability of students.
·Fire Department & Rescue Squad: Provide scene safety, assist EMS with patient removal, stabilization, and packaging.
·EMS: Conduct triage, provide medical treatment, and transport patients to Saint Thomas DeKalb Hospital according to injury severity.
·School Officials: Coordinate student identification and reunification planning.
·Hospital Staff: Receive, triage, and process patients as part of the exercise.
·NHC Healthcare will prepare to accept any minor overflow patients.
Post-Exercise
When the patients (students) have completed their evaluation at Saint Thomas DeKalb, they will be released and may return to school.
A post-exercise review (“Hot Wash”) will be held on-site following the conclusion of the exercise to discuss what went well and identify areas for improvement.
Safety and Control
This is a controlled training exercise.
– No actual emergency driving.
– No real dispatch of mutual aid resources beyond those participating.
– All exercise participants should ensure that ‘EXERCISE – EXERCISE – EXERCISE’ is stated at the beginning and end of all radio or phone transmissions related to this scenario.
Prepared by: Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC)
DeKalb County Emergency Management Agency
Exercise Date: November 6, 2025
Start Time: 9:15 AM
Location: Allens Ferry Road – Little League Ballpark Area
Public Information notice: This exercise is for training purposes only and is no cause for alarm, all participating personnel will be operating under simulated emergency conditions. This exercise is to test capabilities and plans for local emergency responses that may arise in our county. It allows several different agencies to test plans and capabilities before an actual emergency arises”.
