by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
At 8:15 Wednesday morning, it hit the fan all at once all over Duval County.
There was an explosion at Jacksonville International Airport, a tanker truck overturned and caught fire on the Main Street Bridge and there was a train derailment on the Westside and two tank cars were leaking chlorine gas.
Fortunately, it was all just a simulation to measure the readiness of the Jacksonville Transportation Authority in the event of a worst-case scenario.
Robert Raymond, the JTA’s safety & emergency officer, said the federal government requires transit authorities to drill for emergencies on a regular basis and a field exercise like the one held Wednesday must be conducted at least every three years.
“This one was designed to test our internal communications and make sure every element – buses, Skyway, JTA Connexion and maintenance personnel – can work together effectively in an emergency,” said Raymond.
The exercise lasted two days with the simulated simultaneous event element taking place Wednesday. It concluded with Frank O’Hare, System Security Department manager for K & J Safety & Security Services, Inc. meeting a group of Skyway maintenance personnel, the JSO and one of Downtown Vision, Inc.’s Ambassadors at the Jefferson Street Station.
K & J provides transit safety consulting services to Atlanta, St. Louis, New Orleans, New York City and other municipalities as well as federal government clients including the FBI and NASA.
O’Hare posed questions about a series of scenarios to the group about what they as first responders would do in emergencies like a terrorist attack in a building Downtown or a suicide bomber at a transit hub. Subjects included evacuating the station and the surrounding area, notifying surrounding businesses of the emergency and taking precautions to prevent the spread of contamination from chemical or biological weapons.
One of the questions O’Hare asked was how people who were injured should be triaged and evacuated. He said he was surprised at the level of proficiency and training already completed by JTA personnel and Downtown Ambassadors, including first-aid and CPR certification.
“I have never run into that. That’s a first,” commented O’Hare.
“We already knew we had very good people, systems and protocols in place, but after this exercise is thoroughly analyzed by the consultant there may be areas identified where we could make even more improvements,” said Mike Miller, JTA director of external affairs.
In addition to determining JTA’s current level of readiness the simulation was also intended to help plan for future needs, said Raymond.
“We have opportunities for some grant money to do more training. Exercises like this one can help guide us to what type of training we might need to do.”