General News
5 February, 2025
Emergency services put through their paces with train exercises
The joint exercise saw Aurizon staff work alongside local ambulance and fire crews.
Aurizon has hosted its first joint training exercise in Mount Isa alongside frontline emergency service workers.
A small section of the rail line was cordoned off at the Aurizon terminal on Northridge Road last Friday with multiple paramedic and firefighting crews given the opportunity to learn the layout and entry points of several train driver carriages.
Despite the sweltering heat, the crews worked through three emergency scenarios, which were based on likely circumstances emergency workers could face during an accident.
The scenarios ranged from a single driver experiencing a sudden onset of chest pain, to an unresponsive driver lying unconscious in the cab, to a final exercise where there were two drivers battling an electrical fire, with one driver trapped on board.
The morning saw the crews work side by side with firefighters donning their breathing apparatus when entering the smoke-filled driver cab and paramedics placing the rescued 80kg orange “driver” dummy onto a stretcher bed, which was loaded into the waiting ambulances.
Crucially, the exercises gave the emergency workers the opportunity to take some time to climb on board the stationary train and learn the ins and outs of the layout for future reference.
Aurizon technical specialist Dannielle Haylan said the exercises were designed to reduce the amount of time it takes for their staff to receive medical care during an emergency.
“Some of the areas we work in are two or three hours travel by car, so we decided to put this exercise together to familiarise emergency services with the layout of these trains to reduce the amount of time it takes to get someone off a loco, which will reduce the amount of time it takes to get someone to a hospital,” she told North West Weekly.
“There is a range of scenarios that emergency services might face – walkways are narrow and there are different emergency exit points or the machine could be on its side in an accident situation – so we wanted to give them experience in navigating how to remove someone from a loco.”
Ms Haylan said the exercises were recorded and would be used to improve the organisation’s accident response capabilities.
“We are filming it and we are taking photos are we planning on holding a debrief with all the leaders involved because we want to be able to share this information with the rest of the company because we are not the only one that services remote locations,” she said.
“We have tried to organise events such as this in the past but there have been other emergencies at the time and the firefighters or the paramedics have all been called away to urgent jobs – we have been fortunate there are not huge fires or floods in the area and so we can hold this event.”
