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Subject: Mounted search and rescue

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  • From: Karen Nesbitt <spanishequines@yahoo.com>
  • To: MSAR <msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org>, "Mounted search and rescue in Illinois USA." <msar-il@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [MSAR] Amazing and so sad.
  • Date: Tue, 6 Jul 2010 13:13:57 -0700 (PDT)


Responding to:

Message: 1
Date: Mon, 05 Jul 2010 14:28:30 -0400
From: "Irvin Lichtenstein " <ilichten1@verizon.net>
To: "'Mounted search and rescue'" <msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [MSAR] Amazing and so sad.
Message-ID: <72A390F854F749C791360F03FEF2D206@irvsbigbox>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

The stories indicate a harness failure which should have not caused the
extremity of the following collisions.  It appears that the parade committee
was not prepared for the eventuality of a major incident, but the driver was
not prepared to lose control either.

On the 4th I was the right seat on a motorized unit in the Philadelphia
Parade.  We were number 72.  Every street in town was tied up between the
parade, concert on the waterfront, set up for the night concert on the
Parkway and afternoon family day. Tiger Woods was losing a golf match in the
area. There were probably another 2 dozen parades and fireworks shows in the
suburbs.  Over a million people attended the night time concert on the
Parkway and nobody got hurt or arrested.  The difference is planning and
experience.



All morning long, and immediately after the parade, the carriage companies
were operating their tours of Independence Hall area without incident.  The
drivers are also tour guides and often the horse does all the driving.
Guides are young, enthusiastic, and sufficiently trained to pass a driving
and a guiding test.  The City has rules and enforces them.  I have seen
idiot bus drivers try to goose a carriage horse with bad results, we have
had cars crash into carriages, and once in a parade a driver hit a siren

two feet behind my horse. He relieved himself on the fire engine.   



The stories noted kids were in the street picking up candy.  What were they
doing in the road, besides being targets? Much of our route through historic
Philadelphia was fenced off with either bike rack type portables or saw
horse barricades.  The 6 lane wide stretch on the backside had at least 4
foot patrolman at each intersection and often in the middle in addition to
parade marshals.  We were not permitted to throw candy or distribute
anything that would attract persons to the vehicle as we passed. We S turned
our way along, to keep our speed down, discretely handing bottled water to
the cops and watching the marchers ahead and civilians behind.  We did stop
once as a civilian tried to touch the vehicle. 



I have been planning for emergencies for over 30 years, as have many on this
list.  Just having a plan is usually sufficient prevention.  The
parade/event committee has to plan for the worst. It is likely that
investigation will reveal that an ignorant person threw something, exploded
something, or otherwise violated the parade rules that were never enforced.
Whether it is a small town parade with just a few thousand watching or a
million people along a short mile planning necessary.  And complexity is
everywhere.  We dealt with the parade, city police, National Park Service,
Federal Protective Service (GSA), US Marshals, and Treasury Police as well
as hundreds of units from every where in the line of march, and tourists
from all over the world, and often simultaneously.     



PA changed its fireworks laws a while back-nothing more than sparklers is
sort of legal without a fireworks permit.  It is hard to chase down
violators after the detonation but the sellers are watched like a hawk for
in state sales and incidents are way down.  We just stopped one incident by
mentioning that firing was harassing a SAR horse housed next door, raising
disturbing the peace to a felony level and we told them the DA was looking
for an example.......



Sharpen your skills. Do the emergency planning for all events, drills,
exercises.  It is an ICS/NIMS requirement to have a plan, so do it.  And
train your members in how to handle the emergency and carry out the plan
when needed. 



Irv Lichtenstein
----------------------------------->
Irv, very well put and great points.  I think the key word you have is "planning".  The organizers need to be aware of the potential problems.  Just having a "horseman" on the panel does not  necessarily make for a great organization if the horseman is  lacking knowledge or ability.  And I have seen where some having a "certificate" are not always studious, but the idea is to work towards that end.  Continual education does not always come by a paper from some college either,  and it often does come through the toughest school there is.  The school of hard knocks and disasters such as these are some folks greatest teachers, but learning by a-hem, ones seat of the pants is always with a price.  Taking the what little knowledge the group may have and ever expanding on ideas and theories is the victory in planning especially when injuries can go from Mommy, I need a bandaid to a total disaster.
On fireworks...Even sparklers burn at 1800 degrees+ farenhiet and are extremely dangerous for children and how many times do the kids at picnics and such go unsupervised. To give a child a welding rod, Oh please.  How ridiculous when a 4 year olds excitement can cause a major catastrophy like lighting up the lawn to worse in losing a hand or a life..  For an adult to do something even the pros have issues with, is equally a disaster pending.
I do not know of any place in Illinois where its legal to sell fire works, but then I might be lacking in knowledge there, however they are not legal in the state so therefore logic says hello, buying them in Illinois is illegal as well.  I think a lot of the fireworks that end up in Illinois often come in the back door via a flea market or a sale barn or person going across state lines and transporting them here.   Correct me if I am wrong.  Please, but we do not not see them in stores here. Well least as the stores I frequent anyway.  I have seen tent vendors or tailgaters set up in parking lots on occassion... and on the weekend, lack of patrols in some areas may not be keeping them out.
I talked to some officers this weekend and even one or two were not even sure of  a few laws, no less a few COMMON ones that they should know and one flat said, I cant catch him at it.... and if the enforcers do not know the law, then how are the laws to be enforced if the officers or officials lack knowledge or are in the end condoning?  That is where things go bad.  NO one can follow the laws if the laws are not known and laws cannot be enforced by those who are lacking the knowledge and or ability to do so. 
Its like this , everyone takes a drivers test, but the minute they hit the road, the first thing they forget is the rules of order. If you do not keep yourselves abreast and I will be the first to admit that is very hard with all the laws and rules of order that exist, but if you do not make attempts to keep in touch, then we end up with chaos.  The saddest thing about small towns is when something big and bad happens and the previous lack of enforcement of laws bites the town in the keester.  When things go to court, the courts are to rule on LAW, not the good old boys club or a the Andy Griffith and Deputy Fife type of dealing with things.  Thats where the line in the sand gets drawn.  Its not who your attorney is or who the judge is or who your sleeping with.. its the judge of the day judging on the laws.    And so when the LAW says your out, the judge correctly makes his rule.  Dare we have to pray too the judges are not drunk?
Two things happen when officials do not know the law, they could end up putting a lot of people in court fighting frivoulus tickets and lawsuits and that does nothing to get the real criminals of the street.  It clogs the system so they cannot get the real criminals to court. And that prevents the real criminals from going where they should go to deal with their crime and that makes for bad law enforcement.  Then when a citizen has a legitamate complaint, his case gets messed with.  And the criminals know who they are and they know they can keep at keeping on getting away with it.  It damages too the local economy and when there is a disaster, bigger matters arise and cut backs on necessary things happen.
People who are out of town and that get injured have a big problem.  And no one gets a free ride in an ambulance. A $500 trip to the local hospital say 5 miles from the point of where you fall ill or are injured is not small potatoes to many who are injured unexpectedly and the departments DO WANT THEIR DUE!  Who among you have insurance to cover your tab from someone else that is the cause of your harm or if you fall ill when away?  And if you are underinsured, who do you seek out?  First one in a disaster is the party who you think may have caused you harm.  You may be right or wrong. When you are wrong you could lose your shirt just chasing.
 Could the injuries of the 23 and one death been prevented? Hard to say because the panicked horses could have very well left the street and gone up into the curbs where the crowd was standing.  I have seen horses go through chain link fencing over their heads at county fairs that got panicked so with that idea in mind, a nonfenced in crowd on a curb has some serious risk going on....there then becomes the "quirk" in the best laid plans and that too is why they are called accidents.  The issue that the town or event has to deal with is the potential for an accident and if one were to occur, what then is the plan and are the markers in place? where does section A go vs another opart of town? Victims will handle their own situation in different ways.. After the fact, some will want to be compensated.. who do they get that from?  A lot of times they do not even realize the depth of the matter until their hospital bills come.  They dont know what happened and who to approach and are caught in a larch.
I was thinking on what Lila said earlier in that she puts her horses in the barn on the 4th and kind of takes that approach to look the other way during the fire-offs.... Me,  I would have hated to have been in a barn in the stall with one of my  young fillies at the time the M-80 went off had she then decided to knock the snots out of me and the walls in her panic. Had this incident gone even more worse, I would not be the only one wanting to eat the perpetrater alive for the outcome in such event .. well, that is if I lived. 
The neighbor here is notorious for a fireworks display, and for a cop to tell me that he cannot catch him in the act?  I really have got to wonder why.  The pattern is there.  So now the criminal is set up for a fall and so too is the lack of law-enforcement that could bite the area in the keester in the major event.    And in a rural area, no less a wooded or argricultural area should a fire breakout and go out of control, well I think Una could be a good one to ask for opinions on that one snce her ara has suffered from major forest fires..  In rural areas, a rural fire department is always inadequately equipt and lacking manpower. 
We have turned pretty dry overnite here in my neck of the woods.   There are a lot of  crops suffering and the humidity and heat is variable from nice to oppressive.  Oppressive though is a matter of personal opinion.  Air quality is poor even with a breeze.  Like Una a short while ago, I am spending my time tending my arenas, my pens, maintaining my pastures free of weeds and of unnecessary  "fuel and bad bug attracting" type things.  Cleaning those water troughs, keeping them full, keeping manure and bad bugs at bay.  Keeping things really clean, I have no use for bug repellents.  However as I look around, I see others who leave their barns and homes to a perverbial fire trap and in filth.   I still have to wonder on those who neglect to keep their pens and barns clean and on those who allow for their pastures to get overgrown and totally full of weeds.  They defeat their own purpose in feeding by leaving their animals in filth and overgrown pastures when weeds are going to seed.  Letting the feilds tall in dry weed is a fuel and also can make a facility unsafe.  Proper cutting and weed maintanace is  only good management. 
I wish I had the time to ride.  But I feel tending my animals facility for the best in a safer, healthier environment and management is a lot more important and right now, its a 24/7 on going job and my place curtails a lot of mowing. Some of my mowing which in the event of a disaster such as a fire could actually help save lives..  Riding will come when the priority chores get done.... and pacing my energy with that and the heat and the weather.
May you all have a safe summer.
        Karen Nesbitt - VMSAR  Iroqouis County - Illinois

 

 
 
 




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