Today, I volunteered at a local museum for a day of running our annual train rides with Santa Claus. As we volunteers spoke during the day, the conversation invariably turned to the tragedy in Newtown, CT. Looking over our train loaded with happy little children and their families, you begin to wonder what you would do if a lunatic appeared on the train or on the museum grounds. It's an extremely uncomfortable question. However, I have to ask of the excursion operators if they have pondered this same scenario? The only thing our local groups have agreed so far is that we must come up with a plan and practice for the worst case scenario so that we are prepared. I would ask if any of the volunteers, organizations or excursion operating companies have anything they could share. I thank all reading for their time and advice.

Well, the first thing I think I'd do is ascertain that there's a way to contact emergency dispatchers from any train or car. You know, if only someone would invent something where someone could make something like a 911 call without having to run to a phone..... something that isn't prohibited from being carried by operating personnel while on duty or something......

On a less flippant note, I think we'd be a bit better off preparing for slightly more realistically probable events, such as a derailment, a heart attack, a building fire, heat stroke, food poisoning, downed catenary, storm squalls, or whatnot. Frankly, most of us probably aren't even adequately prepared for anything more severe than a cinder to the eye.

Hello Alexander and thank you for the response. Flippancy aside (I did laugh, for what it's worth), that's more my point. I'm sure this isn't new ground. The Long Island Railroad shooting was nearly 20 years ago. There are more likely concerns that happen from derailments to ailments. I guess I'm looking to for all ideas, great and small. Our operating season is over and, in light of recent events, we are all looking at what we do with fresh eyes. I'm just hoping there others out there that might have some wisdom to impart. Anything I could learn, or our group could learn, would only benefit it us. Again, thank you for the response.

I imagine the planning would start with a cohesive emergency operations plan. This would certainly be "worst case", but the same ideas can be put towards dealing with an unruly or combative passenger. Transit agencies have emergency operations plans and so should most excursion operators.

I drafted our emergency ops plan early this year and in this case I would suggest moving passengers from danger via another car in the case of a combative passenger, contact authorities while proceeding to the first possible location where law enforcement might respond. In extreme situations (ie, the original situation), off train evacuation might be necessary.

As for contacting the authorities, in an emergency ANY means of communication is allowed by the FRA (trust me, there's a flow chart). Be it company cell, or personal cell retrieved from your "grip" or even commandeering a passenger's cell. Of course radio communication from the locomotive to base of operations, dispatcher, general manager or whomever is in charge might very well be the best option. Basically whatever gets the message out in the quickest, most reliable manner.

I would urge each passenger conductor to have a company issued cell on their person during their tour of duty. This can be as simple as a "track phone" (no pun intended) SUPPLIED BY THE COMPANY from your local Wallgreens. This is perfectly legal.

Hope this gives you some food for thought.

Dave

Flippancy aside, the best possible approach, at least initially, is indoctrinating ALL operating personnel in the painful reality that something--ANYTHING--can, and eventually will, happen

I'm reminded of an early Dilbert cartoon where they compare the optimist and the pessimist: Dilbert observes that they've had a perfect operating record (or whatever it was); Dilbert the optimist thinks "We're safe forever." Dogbert thinks, "We're due."

I've been through enough emergencies and training that unemotional reactions are almost instinctive: Prevent further injury or danger; arrest any dangerous situation that I can address; summon emergency response or if necessary get someone else to; ascertain that emergency response has an exact location and knows exactly what it's responding to; keep myself and others out of harm's was as necessary; etc. It's quite easy to tell who's never had any experience or training at an emergency; they have no clue what to do or why, as they've never even considered any divergence from the norm. Train your crew, if even just with one training session, to be able to cohesively approach an emergency. The train derails but stays upright--what do you do? A tree falls down on the train and breaks a window, and a person's cut. Car hits the train. Train hits the car. Passenger has a heart attack on the platform. Old man stumbles and breaks his hip. Truck plows into the parking lot and smashes six cars. Bear at the picnic grove. Train robbery, NOT staged Wild West style. Whadaya do?

Remember those fire drills in school? They were to train you to do exactly one thing, and only one, when the fire bell rang, and hopefully the only time it ever rang was for a drill. Has your tourist line set up a training session with the fire department and emergency response network, so they have a clue what you're talking about when you say "meet the train at the Mt. Wilson Road crossing; we have a beesting victim in anaphylaxis..."?

OP, this is a very difficult and emotionally troubling problem that drives us to seek answers - and the answers are few.
Gavin DeBecker is one of the best sources I have run into regarding threat assessment and threat management.

Mitchell is on the button about community relations with your emergency services personnel, and doing training sessions.

At WRM, we use a token system to govern train movements. The cell phone is the token. Well not quite, but darn close. The cell phone is integral to the token, and the token goes back to the charger every night, which assures it doesn't go home in someone's pocket.

Now, for the poor railroad museums, know this: ANY cell phone* can ALWAYS call 9-1-1. You can mooch deactivated phones off your members, and assign them to crews to take out. This costs nothing and there's no limit, so every crewman from the brush cutter to the wine steward can get one. The FRA cannot have a problem with this, since the phone is incapable of anything but calling 911, and in an emergency the law is suspended.

* Must be newer than 2005 (E911 compliant) and not have parts missing, e.g. SIM.

Pro tip: when your kid wants an iPod Touch (or Android equivalent), instead, give him an old smartphone with the same capabilities (e.g. iPhone). The smartphone can always call 911.

For major special events (e.g. Day out with Thomas) my home museum has an ambulance with EMT's and officers from our local law enforcement agency on the property. Each volunteer's badge/name tag has two or three contact numbers for emergencies and for questions that need to go "up the chain of command". (and thanks for the reminder--I'm going to check my cell phone to make sure it has the numbers on "speed dial".)

Ever since we were involved in a couple of emergencies when I was young (long story) this has been one of my interests. I've never been able to serve on a volunteer squad because of my health, but I try to keep up with emergency preparedness in general and try to steer people in the right direction when something comes up.

The rare emergency of a shooter or deliberate car crash or whatever gets all the attention, but the small ones are more likely to get you sued if someone doesn't react to the bee sting, the raving ex who confronts a spouse on the platform or the sudden heart attack. If your staff doesn't have CPR training, it should be part of your winter schedule. Think of the last five things you personally experienced that were urgent or emergent. Odds are they weren't a lone gunman. It might have been the guy in front of you on the sidewalk tripping and falling, one of the neighbors getting chest pains, a car accident on the highway nearby, a severe storm or a power outage. While it's good to think the unthinkable and plan for it, it's not good to forget the far more likely problems that WILL come up. If you plan what you're going to do for the little things, you will have a better chance if the rare and crazy does happen.

Gavin deBecker has a great essay on gavindebecker.com called "Apocalypse Not Now" about our unreasonable fears and what IS reasonable. He's big on trusting your instincts about people and on not giving in to either panic or denial. His book [i]Gift of Fear [/i]should be required reading. It was hugely helpful to me during one of the aforementioned crises.

Another thing for anyone interested: FEMA makes free courses available on many topics. Here's the list and the explanation of how to get college credit for some of them (not free, but cheap) if that interests you:
http://training.fema.gov/IS/
There are several dealing with workplace violence, but many dealing with a variety of emergencies and how to plan for them. A lot of them are about like watching paint dry, but the information is there.

I would suggest that you contact your regional FRA office and ask about their presentations and training resources for emergency planning. The safety officer for this area has done many excellent programs on emergency response, grade crossing safety, hazardous materials events, and removal of injured people from damaged equipment. They provide an important resource to assist in your training efforts.

PC