You Pushed a School Bus Off of What? Red Mountain Bus FTX and the Guiding Line

The portion of U.S. Highway 550 that connects the city of Ouray to Silverton, Colorado, is 27 highly scenic and twisty miles with very few guardrails and steep drop offs of up to 410 feet. From January of 2005 to 2008 Ouray County emergency services responded to eight over-the-side vehicle rescues, all for cars, SUVs or vans. Emergency responders for this portion of Colorado wondered what rescue strategies would be needed to respond to a bus going over the side a la the Mexican Hat Utah 2008 motor coach accident and rescue efforts. Towards that end a school bus was obtained and pushed over the side of Red Mountain. This session covers how this field training exercise—two years in the making—was put together, silos of jurisdiction and responsibility were overcome, what strategy and tactics were selected, how it played out, and the lessons learned.