Derailment staged for emergency services

A mother crying over her dead baby and victims screaming in pain added to the realism of a mock train derailment staged at the Woy Woy rail tunnel by emergency personnel on Saturday, April 9.

Exercise Fourfoot was designed to test the operational readiness of local emergency personnel to deal with a major accident inside the tunnel.

A train was placed in the northern end of the tunnel with the front two carriages filled with volunteer victims, complete with fake blood and wounds.

Roughly 100 personnel were in attendance on the day representing the police, government agencies and representatives from emergency services such as the State Emergency Service, rural and urban fire brigades, HAZMAT, State Rail, ambulance officers and Central Coast Health staff.

Between 30 and 40 volunteer victims took part in the exercise.

Inside the train and tunnel, lights were switched off, as was the air conditioning, to make the exercise as realistic as possible.

Ambulance, fire brigade, state rail and police crews worked in unison to rescue all victims from the train in a coordinated response.

The exercise was conducted while the line was closed for regular maintenance work, so as to minimise further disruption to commuters.

The Brisbane Water Local Area Command police duty officer Chief Inspector Peter Wilde coordinated the exercise.

Local district emergency management officer Mr Michael Slowgrove described the event as a "worthwhile exercise".

"Everyone performed excellently," Mr Slowgrove said.

"It was a good opportunity for participants to put theory into practice.

"We couldn't have done it without the cooperation of City Rail and the emergency services that attended plus Sydney and Central Coast Health."

Exact details of the exercise remained confidential until the morning of the event to help make the emergency response as realistic as possible.

Lyle Stone, April 7 Police Media