Space Case Training

[pcfpr1 11]

Is there any curriculum or classes offered to local Fire Dept.'s and EMS Agencies by WCDES regarding technical rescues called "Space Cases"? Space Case referrers to a term used by the city for a person Pinned between a train and a platform... ive gone through a chunk of the training myself, but was wondering if it was or could be offered at WCDES.

[16fire5 693]

Actually the "Space Case" is the piece of cribbing with angle iron attached and airbag bungie corded to it used in the situation of a person trapped between a train and the platform. Pretty easy to make and if you contact your railroad you could probably figure out a place to do the training with a training manakin. FDNY units get this training at the Rock where there is a building with 2 subway cars and a subway station. Units practice using the airbags and/or bottle jack to lift a train. Very good training.

[M' Ave 1,466]

Good question. There are over 40 rail stations in Westchester, serving hundreds of thousands of commuters with, in excess of 500 trains a day. While the gap is larger than the NYC subway, it's still a gap. This would be some excellent training to see implemented at the County training facility, or perhaps in conjunction with Metro North at the Croton Harmon facility.

These cases happen a lot. Not always with a full body, but a fair amount of feet and knees. The space case mentioned above is a priceless tool for this type of emergency.

[mstrang1 213]

Anybody have a photo?

[JJB531 652]

Anybody have a photo?

Pretty sure I have some photos. I'll post them when I get home.

[pcfpr1 11]

heres what this type of pin looks like.

[pcfpr1 11]

Actually the "Space Case" is the piece of cribbing with angle iron attached and airbag bungie corded to it used in the situation of a person trapped between a train and the platform. Pretty easy to make and if you contact your railroad you could probably figure out a place to do the training with a training manakin. FDNY units get this training at the Rock where there is a building with 2 subway cars and a subway station. Units practice using the airbags and/or bottle jack to lift a train. Very good training.

ahh see i knew i was a little rough on what the terminology applied too.. thanks for clearing that up.. working for ems we got the lecture portion of the training and a very brief overview on how it works didn't really get too hands on with it... im pretty sure that my volly FD could use this training if it was offered...

[islander 27]

Actually the "Space Case" is the piece of cribbing with angle iron attached and airbag bungie corded to it used in the situation of a person trapped between a train and the platform. Pretty easy to make and if you contact your railroad you could probably figure out a place to do the training with a training manakin. FDNY units get this training at the Rock where there is a building with 2 subway cars and a subway station. Units practice using the airbags and/or bottle jack to lift a train. Very good training.

Actually actually, :-) when I was a transit cop, a person vs. train was either the self explanatory "man under" or a "space case" where the aided was trapped between the plat and the train. And as far as the FD/PD inter-service rivalries go, the handful of man unders and space cases that occurred on my post, FDNY, PD, and ESU always worked well together handling the job. In the PD we never called the tool a "space case", perhaps because that's what we called the job itself, we just referred to it as the air bag.

And now that I'm thinking about it, when I got out of the academy, I recall being told not to get confused as the city PD sometimes referred to EDP's as "space cases"...All a matter of perspective I guess.

[ny10570 745]

I never heard of the airbag being called a space case either. Thats always been the patient. I have yet to see a real space case survive to the ER. Once they open up that gap, if the patient was alive they quickly exsanguinate. Man unders on the hand run the gamut. Metro North is very accommodating with training and information. I suggest reaching out to them first.

[JJB531 652]

I went through my photos and don't have any space case photos, just photos jacking up the trains with the airbags and bottle jack. If you want, I can snap a few photos of the space case set-up while I'm at work tomorrow and post them for you.

[grumpyff 1,159]

Looking through Flikr.com I found these training photos. Credit to the photographers

My linkhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/uberzombie/330972313/

My linkhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/29847057@N03/4038800640/in/photostream/