The Orange County Transportation Authority held a recent training for local fire and law enforcement agencies to help first responders understand potential hazards involving OC Bus vehicles and components when responding to incidents. 

Maintenance Training Manager Michael Tingley and Instructor Pat Courchaine of OCTA’s maintenance training team helped familiarize first responders with the systems on OC Bus. Approximately 60 firefighters, including several fire captains and battalion chiefs, attended a recent training exercise to demonstrate how different vehicle components operate. 

OCTA operates over 500 buses including compressed natural gas, hydrogen fuel-cell electric, and plug-in battery electric. Each of these buses were on display during the recent training.

Tingley and Courchaine covered various training topics including door controls, parking brakes, fuel and battery shutoffs, fire suppression, gas detection and interlock braking systems, high voltages in the hydrogen and battery electric buses, and hydrogen fuel hazards.  

Since 2012, OCTA’s maintenance training team has delivered training to more than 20 Orange County Fire Authority stations, Orange County Sheriff’s Department personnel, Transit Police Services deputies, numerous city police agencies, the U.S. Marshals Service, FBI, and Buena Park, Downey, and Bakersfield SWAT teams. 

The team continues to evolve its training for first responders as OCTA remains committed to incorporating new technology on buses and transitioning to a 100% zero-emission bus fleet by 2040.