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Interstate 83 comes to a standstill
when a responding police officer stops to assist one motorist and another car
slams into the back of her police cruiser. Officer Teresa Rigby falls
from
the elevated interstate.
All of us have public safety responsibilities.
In managing traffic incidents we have an obvious obligation to the people
involved,
but we also have a responsibility to motorists to prevent secondary crashes and
reduce delays.
Finally we must remember that our safety and that of fellow responders
should always be a primary consideration.
From the major multi-vehicle crash on a busy freeway
to the disabled vehicle on the shoulder of a local street,
the need for traffic incident management is apparent.
The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial is located in Washington, D.C.
The F.B.I. tracks officer deaths nationally.
Over twenty four years, two hundred and seventy eight law enforcement officers
were struck and killed by vehicles.
That averages out to one officer killed each month.
The fire service has a similar memorial in Emmitsburg, Maryland where it honors
those firefighters who have made the supreme sacrifice, including five killed
in struck-by incidents in 2010.
The International Towing Hall of Fame and Museum in Chattanooga, Tennessee
memorializes those killed performing the important tasks of that profession.
An average of one every six days.
An average of twenty three highway workers were struck and killed by
vehicles each month in 2010.
There are consequences for everyone when incidents occur on our roadways.
They may be minor inconveniences like being late for work or a missed appointment or even
more serious outcomes like being involved in a secondary crash as a
result of an incident related traffic congestion.
To some degree, traffic incidents are inevitable;
but definitely something that we need to manage better for the benefit of
everyone involved.
For commerce, convenience and most of all for safety.
You'd likely had many experiences from traffic incidents in working with fellow
responders.
Some good and perhaps some that didn't go so well.
It boils down to being on the same page to some extent.
Traffic Incident Management
or TIM, is one way we can all pull in the same direction on an incident scene.
The National Traffic Incident Management Coalition represents most national
responder groups and it has established a unified vision for TIM called the
National Unified Goal or NUG for short.
That goal provides the framework for incident management for responders,
responder safety,
safe quick clearance and prompt reliable interoperable communications.
Over the next few minutes we're going to give you the basic tools to understand
TIM.
Work together on the scene
and ultimately clear the scene quickly and safely.
If we do our jobs well, everyone benefits.
We can reduce incident duration significantly and we can reduce secondary
collisions, which are also the ones where our incident responders are injured and killed.
And we can improve safety for all motorists that may be driving near
incidents.
The manual on uniform traffic control devices or MUT CD is a set of
national guidelines used by transportation engineers and other highway
safety professionals to ensure that signs, signals and markings have consistency
throughout the United
States. The section on temporary traffic controls zones applies to traffic incident
management areas. Let's start by defining what constitutes a traffic incident. A
traffic incident is an unplanned, randomly occurring traffic event that
adversely affects normal traffic operations. You can see by the definition
that an incident can vary widely from a stalled vehicle on the roadways shoulder,
roadway debris
or a multi vehicle crash with injuries that blocks several lanes on a major highway.
Even a routine traffic stop can be a type of an incident since it is an
unexpected event to a passing motorist.
Minor incidents are those that are cleared in less than thirty minutes,
like minor crashes, roadway debris,
traffic enforcement actions and other events that impact roadways briefly. Most
of what you encounter will fall into this arena and it will likely be just
handled by you.
Intermediate incidents require a bit longer to handle and would require up to
two hours to clear.
Many minor crashes would likely fall into this category.
Again, it may be just you as a single responder or perhaps someone else from
police, fire or towing to help briefly.
Major incidents are the ones that take more than
two hours to clear.
In many of these instances you are likely to have
more responders and the help of a public works or DOT, with traffic direction
and diversion.
Everyone sharing a common description of an incident scene, reduces confusion among
responders.
Now we have a working definition of incident types,
let's go over some basic TIM concepts.
The traffic incident management area is a temporary traffic control zone.
It resembles a construction work zone;
an advance warning area, transition area, activity area and termination area.
Before this scene is upstream
and past the scene is downstream.
The area where the crash is located is the activity area and the emphasis for the
next few minutes.
Your safety is the very first ingredient in successful traffic incident
management. Let's take a look at how to best achieve safety regardless of
your role as a responder.
Like any first responder as you approach the scene you should be sizing things up
and determining where to park.
Every scene is different,
not all responders will be present so there is not a one size fits all
approach. But if we park in a consistent way it accommodates other responders and
insures maximum flexibility.
Flexibility means that we make adjustments while at the scene.
As the scerne evolves, it is fluid and adaptable to whatever is required.
It is not important who arrives first but how we arrive that dictates safety.
Since fire and rescue have the largest vehicles they can help form a protective
block at an incident. This gives them the closest position to the scene for
fire suppression andpatient extrication
and also prevents a motorist from entering the scene unexpectedly. Next emergency
medical services responds just downstream of the incident,
since they load patients from the back this gives them proper placement for quick
response to the scene
and easy exit after patient treatment without being blocked by other
responders.
A lane plus one concept is standard to provide a sufficient lateral buffer for
fire response
and to give emergency responders a safe working condition during
extrication, patient care or firefighting. As conditions change at the scene
every effort should be made to minimize the impact to travel lanes.
Here's an example of where we might park fire apparatus. A proper buffer should be
provided between the engine and the incident. The protecting block should
only block as much of the travel lanes as necessary. In this case, you can see
the lane plus one concept applied.
Law enforcement has a few options at the incident since motorists tend to pay special
attention to their emergency lights,
they can park behind the fire truck on the shoulder to help slow motorists. They may
assist in blocking multiple lanes by parking their vehicle at the furthest upstream taper
location. As additional officers arrived
they should begin traffic control duties further upstream prior to any
traffic back-up or cue to minimize the chance of secondary crashes, or at key
locations along detour or alternate routes. If additional officers are
required at the scene,
their vehicles should be staged downstream of the incident
on the same side of the road and in the same direction of travel. This is also the
area where towing and recovery operators, along with other responders such as
the media should stage their vehicles and equipment.
For all responders, parking vehicles on the opposite side of the roadway should
be avoided if at all possible.
This type of split scene response causes responders to cross traffic. It can also add to
unnecessary congestion, distraction and traffic issues.
For the same reasons, responding from the opposite direction of travel should be avoided
where possible,
since this increases the chance of secondary incidents along with doubling the amount of congestion.
When the lane plus one is no longer needed drop back and just block the involved lane.
Remember when an incident occurs on the shoulder,
the shoulder is treated as the involved lane.
So only one lane of traffic is affected.
From the responders perspective safety apparel
no longer only
involves bulletproof vests for law enforcement or non-reflected turnout
gear for fire personnel.
A high visibility traffic vest shall be worn by all responders not directly
involved in fire suppression at the incident scene on a roadway.
A minimum NC107 class two vest is required to meet the visibility
requirements for roadways.
Law enforcement can opt for the NC207 public safety vest which
provides a shorter length for better access to belt equipment.
There is no mandate that traffic cones are to be carried by police,
though they are required for newer fire vehicles.
Cones and other channelizing devices can help you communicate direction to
approaching cars, so they are beneficial. Consult your agency's SOP on when to
carry and use them.
The concept of using cones,
road flares, reflectors or other channelizing devices is to taper cars away
from the roadway obstruction and into available lanes.
Remember none of these things can stop a car or replace the need for situational
awareness.
A properly positioned patrol vehicle or fire truck along with a handful of
cones and other devices is likely all you may have.
Make the most of what you have,
however if you're going to be there for any length of time
call for assistance from public works,
DOT,
or other agencies to establish a safer temporary traffic control zone.
As for lighting
the following rules of thumb should be observed.
More lighting
is not always better.
Once traffic goes through a taper and is safely merged, having every vehicle's
lights operating can cause confusion,
vision impairment, gawking,
congestion and other safety issues.
Care should be taken to never blind approaching motorist from either
direction.
If not needed, front facing lights should be reduced or eliminated to lessen the
impact on traffic approaching from the opposite direction.
In many states there are laws to assist us in performing our duties.
Move it, clear it and fender-bender laws require motorist to move vehicles
involved in minor non-injury incidents out a traffic lane.
Safe quick clearance laws give law enforcement and other agencies the
ability to efficiently utilize resources to open roadways without incurring
liability when public safety is at risk.
They can be used for anything from towing abandoned vehicles during
inclement weather or evacuations,
to dragging overturned tractor trailers out of the roadway or utilizing
non-standard towing rotation practices
or Department of Transportation equipment to quickly clear travel lanes.
Push bumpers are a simple addition to patrol cars to move vehicles and
minimize damage.
Remember to check your agency's activation protocols and its liability.
Size things up as you approach the incident scene itself.
Ask yourself what could be done to make this response go as safely and
quickly as possible.
Can the incident be moved to the median or shoulder or to a parking lot or
other safe location.
Will you wait for all other agencies to accomplish their tasks before you even
begin collecting information or will you seek ways to work concurrently saving
time without interfering with other operations.
Will you wait until your investigation is complete to make
contact with towing or other resources or will you contact resources early on
to allow them to respond with the equipment required. To expedite the
removal of deceased victims, some jurisdictions have implemented a system
to give the medical examiner an early notification of a fatality
prior to them actually be needed at the scene.
Will you coordinate with public works or other transportation agencies to install
lane closures early on
or will you wait until traffic backs up and secondary incidents began to occur.
Remember most transportation agencies now have resources from traffic management
centers to overhead and portable message boards that can be quickly programmed with
appropriate messages to coordinate with the media,
trucking companies, 511 toll-free phone systems,
mobile applications and other resources to alert the motoring public of an
ongoing incident.
Typically all it takes is a call to dispatch to mobilize these resources.
Generally the sooner other responders are contacted, the more congestion
and secondary incidents can be reduced and the safer the work environment for
emergency responders will be.
Regardless of your roll, you have a lot of things to do and decisions to make at the
scene of a traffic incident.
Now let's talk about communication at incident scenes.
Like this pit crew,
each of you has a specific job to do. While all responders have their own jobs,
they have one
overriding objective. To get in and get out as quickly and as safely as possible.
Pick any one of these individuals.
Put yourself in their place in terms of your assignment. Their job is to win the
race, be safe, be as efficient as possible and work as a team.
Our job is to clear the incident, be safe, be as efficient as possible and work
as a team.
Both have one thing in common, properly communicating with one another to
achieve the task at hand.
Use plain language not radio codes so you can be understood.
For example, knowing that a crash is against a median wall allows other
responders to be in the left line thus reducing their need to cross lanes
unexpectedly.
Relaying that the incident is on the westbound side, one mile beyond an interchange
keeps responders from unnecessarily blocking traffic on the opposite side of
the road. The standardized lane description system has been developed to
assist responders. Left and right shoulders are called by those names. Travel lanes
are numbered from the inside outward.
One-two-three, et cetera. On ramps and off ramps are referred to as such. If there
is an adjacent service road, its lanes have their own numbering from the inside
outward starting with one.
The next critical communication tactic is properly painting the picture for the
responders.
All too often resources are simply requested.
Wouldn't it be more effective to describe the scene,
so agencies can determine for themselves what resources are required.
Having to respond additional or different equipment only delays
incident clearance and contributes to congestion, travel delays, difficulties in
response
and most importantly the safety of both responders and the motoring public.
The other critical time to communicate is at the incident scene itself.
Properly using incident command procedures, a coordinated response can be
initiated to achieve the goals as safely and efficiently as possible.
By utilizing the unified command system, everyone is kept abreast of the goal and
how operations can achieve the goal without impacting others.
Just like the NASCAR crew,
incident responders need to act in a coordinated fashion
no matter if the incident is a minor one of less than 30 minutes,
involving only law enforcement and a tow operator
or a major one of
more than two hours involving
multiple agencies and affecting multiple jurisdictions.
Traffic incident management practice makes us all far more
efficient and effective but most importantly they keep everyone safe,
reduce delays, minimize motorist frustrations, promote commerce and save
time, money and fuel. You can manage to survive at a traffic incident by
following some guiding principles.
Let's recap the more important ones.
Wear your retro reflective traffic vest day and night.
Park all vehicles in their appropriate location.
Watch traffic and reassess the scene for changes.
Reposition vehicles as needed to make room for other responders.
Use lighting appropriately. Dim headlights unless they are needed to
illuminate the scene at night and direct all lights away from oncoming traffic.
If available, used traffic cones and other traffic control devices to protect
the scene, warn motorists and guide them to open travel lanes.
Block as few lines as needed to protect the scene and to guide motorists.
Open travel lanes as soon as possible. Consider moving the incident and all
responding vehicles to the shoulder or preferrably completely off the roadway
to an exit or parking lot.
Clear this scene as soon as possible.
Leave when you're no longer playing an active role.
Understand the roles and procedures of others at the scene.
Work as a team and communicate regularly.
Keep dispatch informed, request other resources and involve transportation
agencies, if needed.
This video was designed to provide awareness to incident first responders.
There are classroom training courses and online learning products being rolled
out now
to provide more detail about TIM and even to practice the concepts.
Keep an eye out for the National Traffic Instant Responder Course
brought to you by the Federal Highway Administration. You can also network with
other responders in your area and around the nation
by participating in the TIM network. More information is available at
timnetwork.org.