Exercise aims to dial in emergency response

CAREYWOOD — Emergency responders and law officers will gather near the Bonner/Kootenai county line on Saturday, Dec. 5 for a multiple-vehicle highway crash exercise.

The exercise is being conducted at the Sagle Fire District station along U.S. Highway 95 in Careywood. Motorists passing through the area, around milepost 456, are asked to use caution while the exercise is under way.

The exercise is designed to explore potential complications that can arise when there is a multiple-casualty traffic accident which draws emergency medical service personnel and law officers from various jurisdictions.

Bonner County EMS Chief Robert Wakeley said the idea to do the exercise emerged during annual contract negotiations with the Kootenai County Emergency Medical Services System, which responds to emergency calls in southern Bonner County.

“We just got to talking and someone floated the idea of having an exercise and one thing led to another,” Wakeley said.

The complexity of such calls was underscored last year during a deadly head-on collision in Careywood. Distress calls poured into all sides of two county dispatch centers and responders from both sides of the county line converged on an already chaotic scene.

It’s hoped the exercise will help better coordinate response and communication. It will also give responders face time with their counterparts on the other side of the county line.

“When we have several different agencies responding to the same place, there’s lots of unusual things that can occur on an accident like this. The more we work together and get to know each other on-scene in these exercises, the smoother the real thing can go,” said Wakeley.

Participants in the exercise include Bonner County EMS, Kootenai County EMS, area law enforcement and firefighters from the Sagle, Timberlake, Northern Lakes, and Spirit Lake fire districts.

The exercise scenario will involve a simulation of a crash with at least two vehicles and five patients.

Donated motor vehicles will be used for an extrication plot and students enrolled in Emerency Medical Technician training will portray victims and bystanders.