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msar-riders - Re: [MSAR] Amazing and so sad.

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  • From: "Irvin Lichtenstein " <ilichten1@verizon.net>
  • To: "'Mounted search and rescue'" <msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [MSAR] Amazing and so sad.
  • Date: Mon, 05 Jul 2010 14:28:30 -0400

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

 

 


From: msar-riders-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:msar-riders-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Lila Corey
Sent: Monday, July 05, 2010 9:32 AM
To: lhanahan@mindspring.com; Mounted search and rescue
Subject: Re: [MSAR] Amazing and so sad.




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