PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — If you saw a heavy police and fire response at the Walnut-Locust concourse Wednesday morning, don’t worry, it was only a drill.
As SEPTA gets ready to handle large crowds for the FIFA World Cup, staffers and first responders staged a training drill to practice scenarios they could encounter.
“We’re simulating July 4th because we expect that to be, of all of the FIFA games, our busiest day,” said Maryann Tierney, who heads SEPTA’s control center.
SEPTA Transit Police Chief Chuck Lawson said during the drill, as officers responded to a backpack left near some trash cans, a simulated medical emergency broke out nearby.
“They found a suspicious-looking package and they’re trying to work through that,” he explained. “Then we have medical emergencies that arise — not involved in that. So you’re really stressing what’s going on at any one scene.”
Another scenario simulated a parent who didn’t speak English reporting a lost child.
Tierney said many riders headed to World Cup matches may not be familiar with SEPTA, so it’s essential to have a safety plan that takes that into consideration.
“To be honest, in my experience, if everything went well in the exercise, then we didn’t do a good job planning the exercise,” she said. “The whole point of the exercise is to identify issues now so that we can correct them ahead of the actual event.”
Philadelphia is hosting six World Cup games between June 14 and July 4.
