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Bus Evacuation at Rogiet Primary School


BUSK (Belt Up School Kids) training at Rogiet Primary School, Monmouthshire

It was a dry but cold day in early December when the BUSK training team visited Rogiet Primary School as part of a programme to teach young people across Monmouthshire how to travel safely by road and the correct evacuation procedures of a bus or coach.

Year six was the target group. From next September many will have to use school transport to get to the nearest comprehensive school which may be several miles away.

The session began in the classroom straight after registration. Pat and Perry introduced themselves and asked the pupils to complete one side of a questionnaire which would find out what they knew about seatbelts and how many of them were regular users.

Soon we all went outside where a coach from the Monmouthshire CC School Transport Fleet was waiting for us to board. Perry explained that we had to imagine that the coach had crashed on the M4 motorway; the front was damaged and the doors could not open but they needed to get out as quickly as they could as we could smell smoke. No further explanation was given. The pupils looked at each other briefly – then two girls sitting at the back (who had noticed mats being placed alongside the emergency exit) stood up and went to the back of the coach and got out by the emergency exit. The rest of the children followed and the coach was soon empty.

Perry and Pat were waiting at the back as the last pupils jumped down. “Where are you standing now?” asked Perry. And we all realised that if the scenario had been real we would have been standing in the middle of the motorway. The pupils then went back on the coach where the correct evacuation procedure was explained. Leave your bags on the coach but not on the floor, keep calm, sit on the edge of the doorway and slide off don’t jump, assemble somewhere safe afterwards where you can be accounted for, was some of the advice given.

A second evacuation took place with coach emptying 40 seconds faster this time and all passengers assembling on the kerbside at the back of the coach. After praising them for their progress the youngsters were invited to get back on the coach for a trip to Caldicot Fire Station.

At the Fire Station they were introduced to Stuart, a serving fire fighter, who showed them some of the equipment he uses when attending a road traffic collision. The airbag cover and heavy cutting equipment clearly impressed the audience. The Fire & Rescue Service now attend around nine times more Road Traffic Collisions than fires so this type of road safety training is important.

Back at school it was time to work through the DVD that BUSK commissioned to help teach people about safety whilst travelling in any road transport. At each of the pause points the class had lots of questions and comments. They were concerned that sometimes their parents did not belt-up to which they were told they had ‘pester power’ and could explain to their grown-ups that unrestrained adults would seriously hurt other people in the car if there was a crash.

Finally, the pupils were asked to complete the other side of the questionnaire so that the BUSK representatives would be able to see if the training had changed the opinions of the children.

BUSK was set up in early 1993 by Pat Harris and other concerned parents to improve in-bus safety on school related journeys. For more information or to request training from the BUSK Team phone 01633 274944.