Emergency crews train for large-scale attack

CAMP WILLIAMS – Would Utah’s medical system be ready to handle a mass shooting or another kind of terror attack?  Emergency workers were trying to answer that question in one of the largest terror drills of its kind.

This was the scenario being depicted today.  A protest outside of a government building turns violent.  Salt Lake Valley Training Alliance sitting Chair Tim Norris says, “At some point in time, an individual came in and used a vehicle as a weapon.”

Dozens of volunteers and emergency personnel were on hand both at Camp Williams and St. Mark’s Hospital for the training exercise.  Norris says they couldn’t actually transport the “injured” volunteers to the hospital, but, all of the mock injuries that happened on one site were duplicated on the other.  Norris says, “If a patient transported from here had a leg injury, a patient at St. Mark’s [had] a leg injury.”

This emergency drill had been in the planning stages for a year, long before the attacks in Las Vegas and Charlottesville.  However, Norris says those events were heavy on the minds of everyone involved.  Still, he was encouraged by how well everyone’s efforts came together.  Norris says, “We had a great participation, we had an excellent showing from police.  We’ve taken a lot of opportunities about learning from this.”