Firefighters and police responded to a remote area of the San Bernardino County mountains overnight, where a church bus full of people overturned suddenly on the way down State Route 330 near Running Springs.
Emergency responders arrived on the scene just before 9:00 PM to find the bus turned over on its side. The occupants of the vehicle were working to exit through the vehicle’s roof hatch. California Highway Patrol officers then set to work investigating the cause of the accident.
According to Ryan Beckers, representative for the San Bernardino County Fire Department, “The passengers, a mix of adults and teens, were traveling downhill on the way home to Orange County, after attending a camp in the San Bernardino Mountains near Angelus Oak.”
Some 20 people were rushed to local hospitals via ambulance, while others refused treatment, says Beckers. The first patients were en route to the hospital within 15 minutes of the emergency services’ arrival, being in line with triage protocol. All patients were on their way by no later than 10:30 PM.
Beckers also says that a Mass Casualty Drill practice session undertaken by the San Bernardino County Fire Department helped greatly in their effectiveness and response and to the incident.
“This past February, County Fire initiated a major multi-agency MCI drill,” Beckers reported. “The scenario featured an overturned school bus with adults and teens on board. Several of the rescuers on scene last night participated in that drill, providing them with valuable experience in this kind of incident.”
Information on this story is still developing.