KELSEYVILLE — A head-on collision that is being called a “terrorist-related incident” resulted in five “fatalities” and 21 more “injuries” Wednesday morning on Highway 29 near Kit”s Corner.
After making an anonymous call to the Lake County Sheriff”s Office alleging that he was going to “cause a major accident” sometime that day, the young mercenary apparently commandeered a big rig from a construction site and rammed a school bus full of students on their way to a Homeland Security conference in Sacramento, according to Assistant Coordinator Willie Sapeta with the Office of Emergency Services, on scene Wednesday morning.
Fortunately, it was only a drill.
Twenty-six Kelseyville High School K-Corps students help the OES perform periodic drills, and volunteered in this one as the injured. One young man was selected as the “terrorist” truck driver. No one was injured, and at no point was the road closed because the simulation took place at Konocti Conservation Camp in Kelseyville.
Sapeta said 75 first responders participated from several of the county”s fire agencies and Cal Fire, both city police departments, the LCSO and CHP. Also participating were reps from REACH, state OES and evaluators from Mendocino County.
“We did this to address possible inter-operable communication issues,” said Sapeta, explaining that first-responders who participated use different radio frequencies within their various agencies. “This was to make sure that when we get on scene we can all talk to each other,” he said.
The “injuries” were color-coded by their severity and level of need for emergency medical response, with black for fatalities, red for severe injury, yellow for wounded and green for “walking wounded,” Sapeta said.
“I was impressed,” said Dist. 1 Supervisor Ed Robey, who was invited to the Wednesday simulation. “Everybody was really working together, everybody was well coordinated — it was impressive.”
This drill took three months to plan, Sapeta said. It wasn”t the first of its kind, and it won”t be the last. In September, the OES will start planning a hazmat event involving between 30 and 60 “casualties” somewhere on the Northshore for December or January, he said.
“The biggest goal was for us to be prepared for a disaster. We got practice using the tools and equipment we”ve purchased using Homeland Security grants,” said Sapeta. He said to date, $1.6 million in grants have secured emergency response equipment for all of the county”s first responding agencies.
