Police tape

Emergency services to carry out serious incident exercise tonight

This in from the council, in their own words. Ed


The exercise will take place at the railway bridge located along Rowlands Lane, Havenstreet between 7pm and 9pm this evening (Wednesday 22 April). Rowlands Lane will be closed to vehicles and pedestrians between Stroud Wood Road and the Downs Road between 6pm and 9pm. Residents living within the road closure area have been provided with information and spoken to by fire service staff, where possible.

The exercise will involve representatives from the Isle of Wight Ambulance Service, Island Roads and the Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service.

An important part in the ongoing training
To make the exercise as realistic as possible for those taking part, it is not possible to provide details of the simulated incident in advance, it will however involve a number of casualties. Theatrical make-up students from the Isle of Wight College will be making up actors with realistic injuries.

Dave Curry, Chief Fire Officer at the Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service, said:

“Multi-agency exercises help us to better understand each other’s areas of expertise and ways of working so that we can improve how we jointly deal with an emergency.

“Although major incidents are thankfully rare on the Island, exercises such as this play an important part in the ongoing training crews undertake to help them prepare for different scenarios.”

Image: Ray Forster under CC BY 2.0