The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will offer a three-day course, "Transportation Disaster Response - A Course for Emergency Responders," at the NTSB Training Center in Ashburn, Va. Nov. 16 to 18.

The course, which is being facilitated with the full participation of the New Jersey State Police, 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 with response roles in recent accidents 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 the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority Red Line Metro crash in Washington, D.C.

For information on the course, click here.