BIG SPRING, Texas (March 25, 2008) — Transportation director Wayland Pierce says he’s now a big fan of a law requiring all Texas districts to train students on evacuations. After all, it helped safely clear out hundreds of students after an explosion at a nearby oil refinery last month.

It was shortly after eight in the morning on Feb. 18 when the ground began shaking and windows shattered at the Big Spring Independent School District bus barn. As smoke rose from the explosion of a fuel tank at the Alon USA refinery, the superintendent called for the evacuation of two elementary schools. The schools were just miles from the refinery, but most of the regular route drivers were stuck in traffic as they headed home from their morning routes.

Making matters more complex, the district needed to move all 31 of its buses from the barn at the same time. If matters got worse, they were the only means to evacuate the whole town.

Pierce, a former coach, got on the phone and called his reserves, a group of CDL-carrying coaches from the high school. Within 25 minutes, eight coaches got behind the wheel and moved over 600 K-4 students to Goliard Intermediate School.

Pierce attributed some of this success to recently-mandated evacuation training. In November, House Bill 3190 required that Texas public schools train all students and teachers in evacuation.

Before this year, Pierce said he had no training program in place for the evacuation of students. But after the requirement, Pierce purchased a training kit from the Vertical Alliance Group. Thanks to the kit, Pierce said the children loaded onto the buses safely and quickly without panicking and were home safe long before the refinery flames were extinguished.