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| Illustration by Edward W. Tyszkiewicz |
A terrorist event, an active shooter, a serious accident, a natural disaster, or other high-stakes crisis can affect anyone, any time. The good news is that you don’t need to have super-human strength and abilities to help yourself and your community in a high-stakes crisis. If you want to help and are ready to improvise in small groups with other people on the scene, you can act heroically with others to save lives.
Through studying case studies of rapid rescues and instant innovations in accidents, disasters and emergencies, I uncovered the improvisational abilities that people in small groups can use to address high-stakes crises with other people on the scene in what I call the Heroic Improv Cycle©. In my blog, I present “ripped from the headlines” case studies of ordinary people following what I call the Heroic Improv Cycle© to save lives.
For more information on how the Heroic Improv Cycle© works: Check out www.heroic-improv.com/blog
Saipov began his rampage at about 3 p.m., driving the rented truck nearly a mile on a popular biking and walking path near the Hudson River and killing at least eight people and wounding many others. Saipov then slammed the truck directly into the side of a school bus carrying children with special needs and got out of the truck and shouted “Allahu Akbar,” an Arabic phrase that means “God is Great.” In a hail of gunfire that subsequently erupted, Saipov was shot in the stomach and taken into custody by the New York police.
Thinking quickly, the driver of the school bus, whose name has not been released, quickly guided the bus to a safer side street and began yelling for help in rescuing the children still inside the mangled school bus. Sebastian Sobczak, who happened to be walking by and who had begun filming the incident when gunfire erupted, alerted nearby police, asked someone to call 911, and yelled for an ambulance. Very quickly, police and firefighters arrived on the scene to help. A 14-year-old girl on the bus suffered a fractured hip, internal bleeding, and a laceration to the liver. A 17-year-old boy was injured less seriously. Sobczak called the bus driver, who selflessly remained in the line of fire consoling one of the trapped children despite being injured himself, a hero.
Sobczak’s real-time video of the aftermath of the crash of the school bus shows how different people helped rescue the trapped children using the five steps of the Heroic Improv Cycle©. When the truck slammed into the school bus, the bus driver immediately recognized that this was not an ordinary traffic accident (Step 1: Alert: Sharpen perception and awareness of problem at hand.). The driver of the school bus, though injured himself, moved the bus to a side street, and got out of the bus to look for help in removing the trapped children still in the bus (Step 2: Ready: Find resources and overcome communication barriers to address the problem.). The driver screamed for help from a bystander who immediately alerted first responders to the situation (Step 3: Connect: Form a team quickly.). The team focused on helping the child stuck in the tangled wheelwell of the bus (Step 4: Focus: Aim attention to solve the problem.). Very quickly, police and firefighters used equipment to remove the trapped children and get the bus driver and other victims of the crash to safety (Step 5: Move: Shift into action together.).
- For more about the school bus incident, check out: http://abcnews.go.com/US/nyc-terror-attack-dramatic-video-shows-mangled-school/story?id=50890946
- For more about Heroic Improv and how you can develop a survivor mindset with the Heroic Improv Program© training, check out: www.heroic-improv.com or contact dr.mary@heroic-improv.com
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