HARRISON — This Sunday, school, emergency, police, fire and hospital personnel, county dispatchers and others will hold a mock school bus crash on Waterford Road/Route 35.

The incident will be staged near the Bridgton town line between 8 a.m. and noon. The road will be closed to through traffic. Officials said residents and motorists should be aware that it is a training drill, though it will appear to be real.

Fire and rescue will called out at 9 a.m., about a half hour after student actors are placed in the bus. Emergency units will rescue students, who will be taken to local hospitals by ambulance. By 11:30 a.m., everyone will be back at the Harrison Fire Station for a debriefing and lunch before the drill ends at 12:30 p.m.

This the first year that School Administrative District 17 and School Administrative District 61 based in Bridgton have combined efforts for a drill, SAD 17 Transportation Director Dave Fontaine said.

About 20 students from the Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School drama club and the Oxford Hills Middle School theatre program will play the roles of victims. Adults will act as frantic parents who arrive at the scene.

“I opened it up to volunteers committed to help in this type of learning experience,” Corrine Turner, drama teacher at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School in Paris, said. (It’s) so important for the community as well as our transportation department.”

While the students have not rehearsed in the traditional sense, Turner said the students have gotten together several times to discuss their roles, expectations and costuming.

“The students are extremely excited to be a part of this,” she said. Students and parents will arrive at the scene at 6:30 a.m. for makeup and to get their assignments.

SAD 17 has conducted this type of drill in the past, but this is the first year it will be combining the effort with another district.

ldixon@sunmediagroup.net