Emergency Services Training exercise in Kilbroney | Latest Newry News, Newry Sport and Newry Business for Newry City

Emergency Services Training exercise in Kilbroney

An Emergency Services Training Exercise took place at Kilbroney Park’s Mountain Bike Trails, Rostrevor recently.

Kilbroney11The exercise involved staff and officers from NIFRS, NIAS, PSNI, Newry, Mourne and Down District Council and The Mourne Heritage Trust and was organised in response to the growing popularity of the Trails.

PSNI Emergency Planning Officer, Henry Thompson, explained, “The popularity of the mountain bike trails in Rostrevor has really increased. However, with increased use comes an increase in the number of persons injured as a result of crashes.

“The majority of these injuries are minor and the injured persons have been able to make their way off the hills or at least to self-report. The latter have, in the main, been dealt effectively with the Emergency Services.

“We organised this training exercise to test our inter-agency coordination and communication in the event of a person reported as seriously injured or missing on one of the many trails in Kilbroney Forest Park.”

Kilbroney12The exercise began with a report from an injured person somewhere in the forest park. The agencies worked together to locate the injured person and transport them off the mountain and to waiting emergency services.

The exercise proved a success and post exercise debriefing findings will be used to help plan more effectively for the future and ultimately give a better service to the public.

Constable Thompson added, “The exercise went well on the day and all agencies came together cohesively. Events like this are vital in helping us prepare for worst-case scenarios and testing our multi-agency relationships and responses.

“In an ideal world we would never have to put our response methods into action but should a serious incident occur at Kilbroney Forest Park, we will now be better prepared and equipped to respond.”

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Posted by on Nov 2 2015. Filed under Community. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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