WASHINGTON - The National Transportation Safety Board is offering a three-day course, "Transportation Disaster Response - A Course for Emergency Responders," at the NTSB Training Center in Ashburn, Va., (near Washington, D.C.) on Nov. 16-18.  

The course is being facilitated with the full participation of the New Jersey State Police. This course is designed specifically for local, county, state and federal emergency responders, planners and managers as well as members of organizations and agencies with accident response roles.  

NTSB specialists and speakers from the FBI, the New Jersey State Police, and other emergency response agencies and organizations will discuss the operational and organizational challenges encountered in responding to large-scale, high-profile transportation accidents.

Topics will include the incident command system, events involving terrorism and/or hazardous materials, interaction with the news media, communicating with the local community and families of the victims, assistance to family members, forensic aspects of recovery and identification, and long- term issues facing the affected community following a major disaster.

Case studies will include:

• Crash of Colgan Air Flight 3407, Clarence Center, N.Y.

• Collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, Minn.

• US Airways Airbus crash landing in the Hudson River

• Parking Garage Collapse in Hackensack, N.J.

• WMATA Red Line Metro Crash in Washington, D.C.

For more details, click here.