Citywide Disaster Drill

West Des Moines Emergency Medical Services organized a mass casualty bus rollover drill on May 10th to test our public safety's mass casualty protocols and Command/Communication procedures. The drill started with an actual bus turned on its side with 12 “patients.” The patients were moulaged with fake injuries. The drill began with a lone police officer arriving on the scene and culminated when personnel from WDM Fire, EMS, 5 neighboring departments and a flight helicopter responded to the incident. This kind of drill always results in lessons learned should a true mass casualty disaster occur. Ideally we will not have to use these lessons, but our public safety departments are now more prepared if we do.