In most parts of the United States and many countries around the world, traffic congestion, crashes, and traffic flow are major issues. It seems there are more vehicles every day on the same number of roadways, and construction of new roads or additional lanes on highways isn’t happening fast enough. Where roadway construction is occurring, traffic can be significantly impacted during the project. Couple the increased volume with emerging issues like higher speed limits and distracted drivers and the need to effectively manage traffic flow, particularly during an incident, is even more important.
Most drivers have experienced driving along a highway with the flow of traffic when, all of a sudden, brake lights appear ahead, and traffic comes to a screeching halt. All too often, a distracted driver is not paying attention and hits the vehicle in front. With a generally close traffic “queue” (the length of the slowdown from the location of the incident, downstream to where traffic is flowing normally), hitting one vehicle at highway speeds often results in several vehicles becoming involved and can cause injuries or fatalities. A closed roadway also creates the need for detours and results in unsafe behavior by motorists such as crossing medians, driving on shoulders, or driving against traffic.
Safety Risks of Traffic Incidents
Law enforcement leaders have a responsibility for public safety in their communities, as well as for the safety of their staff. “Officer safety” goes beyond the traditionally armed encounter; leaders cannot dismiss the fact that too many officers have been seriously injured or killed while handling traffic incidents. In the 10-year period from 2008 to 2017, 126 officers were struck and killed by a vehicle, accounting for about 8 percent of all police officer line-of-duty deaths during that period.1 Sadly, police agencies around the world are facing the same issue.
The risks exist for others too (bystanders, other first responders, tow-truck drivers, etc.), and it’s time to look at the bigger picture and enhance safety for all who provide services on a roadway. The International Towing Museum in Chattanooga, Tennessee honors more than 400 towing and recovery professionals on its Wall of the Fallen.2
Financial Impact of Traffic Incidents
The costs of a traffic crash, beyond the immeasurable loss of a colleague, are staggering. According to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the total economic cost of a fatal crash in 2016 was over 5.4 million dollars; it is estimated that the cost to the state for a nonfatal “severe crash” is over 1.5 million dollars.3 Estimated costs include emergency services provided by police, EMS, fire services, and incident management services at the scene of the crash; medical services; hospital costs; coroner services; market productivity loss due to lost wages; household productivity loss; insurance administration; workplace costs; legal costs; congestion impacts due to travel delays; and property damage to vehicles, cargo, roadways, and other property.4
Motorists in the United States burn more than 2.8 billion gallons of fuel every year while stuck in incident-related traffic and lose nearly a full workweek (36 hours) sitting in traffic congestion each year. Every minute a traffic lane is blocked creates four extra minutes of delay for those traveling the roadway.5 In addition, blocked traffic lanes significantly increase the potential for secondary crashes. The research shows that, when properly managed, maintaining traffic flow to the extent possible and opening the road as quickly as possible saves lives. Opening all lanes as quickly as possible enhances overall safety because highway responders are off the roadway and traffic begins flowing again.
SECONDARY CRASHESThe FHWA defines “secondary crashes” as crashes beginning with the time of detection of the primary incident where the collision occurs either (a) within the incident scene or (b) within the queue, including the opposite direction, resulting from the original incident.* Research shows that secondary crashes can be more deadly than the original incident. In his work on secondary crashes, transportation safety and engineer expert Dr. Hong Yang states The occurrence of “secondary crashes” is one of the critical yet understudied highway safety issues. Induced by the primary crashes, the occurrence of secondary crashes does not only increase traffic delays, but also the risk of inducing additional incidents.† NOTES * FHWA, Traffic Incident Management Performance Measurement Presentation, Slide 10. † Hong Yang, Kaan Ozbay, and Qian Xie, “Assessing the Risk of Secondary Crashes on Highways,” Journal of Safety Research 49 (June 2014): 143–149. |
Solution
But how can responders be as safe as possible while they are in the travel lanes of an active roadway attending to the incident?
While all struck-by injuries and deaths might not have been preventable, research conducted by the FHWA shows promising results from a comprehensive system of managing traffic incidents involving all responders.
Traffic Incident Management (TIM), is “a planned and coordinated multi-disciplinary process to detect, respond to, and clear traffic incidents so that traffic flow may be restored as safely and quickly as possible.”6 It is part of the FHWA’s all-hazards program, known as Emergency Transportation Operations. Many aspects of traffic safety are coordinated under this umbrella, and, together, responders and leaders are making a difference. Research is being conducted on lighting, signage, and occupant safety, while engineers and planners are designing safer systems. In addition, autonomous vehicle research is progressing quickly, and test vehicles are already on the highways in some parts of the United States and other countries.
TIM brings together those responsible for responding to and managing an incident on the roadways. It goes beyond the traditional public safety responders of police, fire, and EMS, and includes state and local highway departments, safety service patrols, public works departments, tow operators, and others. Engaging all highway response partners in TIM is an opportunity for collaboration and preplanning a collective response to a traffic incident, while enhancing safety for all responders and roadway users. It also helps build a community of responders who understand and share a collective responsibility for the safety of everyone, including officers.
Managing traffic incidents is not limited to cities or metropolitan areas. Any organization that is responsible for traffic crash response and investigation, provides any law enforcement service on a roadway, or supports motorists traversing the highways and byways of the community has a responsibility for traffic incident management. The traffic incident that can lead to a secondary crash isn’t always a primary crash. Often, it is a traffic stop, an officer helping a disabled motorist, debris in the roadway, or some other issue leading to a slowdown. In its most simple terms, TIM creates a common focus, enhancing the safety of responders while reducing secondary crashes and keeping the flow of traffic moving, regardless of the reason for the initial incident.
Collaboration and Training
The first step in implementing TIM is to create the shared vision that all responders have responsibility for scene safety, despite the different roles they fulfill. Law enforcement leaders can bring that vision into focus and obtain a commitment by agency leaders and the leaders of partner organizations to develop protocols for a response. Training is critical to success, and joint training has proven to be most effective in helping an agency’s line staff understand and employ the TIM concept. Bringing all stakeholders into a shared classroom setting—police, fire, EMS, towing staff, highway staff—rather than just when an incident occurs, helps build relationships, community, and the aforementioned shared vision. The theme of the 2018 FHWA National Traffic Incident Response Awareness Week (NTIRAW), “Traffic Incident Response: Everybody’s Responsibility,” gives a clear message of collaboration and partnership.
TRAFFIC CRASH DATA CAPTUREIn 2016, there were almost 7.3 million police-reported crashes; 34,439 were fatal.* However, police leaders know that a significant number of crashes do not meet the threshold to be considered “reportable” under various state guidelines. Minor crashes in which there is no injury, damage sustained is under a certain dollar amount, or no public property damage occurred do not necessarily result in a police crash report being filed. Non-reportable crashes account for a significant volume of incidents that, so far, have not been fully integrated into the crash data. As a result, the data are missing from the state and federal crash analyses. With the advances in safety technology, it’s no wonder that many crashes are “minor,” but the circumstances of the crash are still important to review, so that a more complete picture of causation can be obtained. So how can that information be captured? During a brainstorming session of the IACP Highway Safety Committee TIM Working Group, a potential solution arose. Most law enforcement agencies utilize some form of computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system. Some are integrated into regional or state-wide systems; others provide a data interface to state traffic and transportation agencies. Some are robust, providing good analytical tools, while others are “legacy” systems that provide only basic information. Working with major CAD system vendors and the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials (APCO), the TIM Working Group has designed a project to provide actionable results and develop best practices to advance reporting so that TIM training and operations can be even more effective. The group has two pilot projects in place at law enforcement agencies that are designed to take advantage of the additional data on crashes that are typically housed in police dispatch systems. The Oro Valley, Arizona, Police Department and the Apex, North Carolina, Police Department have very different CAD systems, and, both agencies agreed to embark on this project. The goal is to identify sustainable methods to capture data in a variety of systems and develop a method for that data to be incorporated into systematic traffic crash analyses. The goal is that, in doing so, the knowledge of crash causation will be better understood, incidents will be reduced, and responder safety will be enhanced. NOTE* National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, “Police-Reported Motor Vehicle Traffic Crashes in 2016,” Traffic Safety Facts (March 2018). |
The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) has taken an active role in enhancing responder safety through TIM. IACP is represented by several law enforcement leaders and IACP staff on the FHWA Executive Leadership Group (ELG) on Traffic Incident Management. Representatives from the Division of State Associations of Chiefs of Police (SACOP), the Division of State and Provincial Police (S&P), and the Highway Safety Committee have partnered with the FHWA and other aligned partner associations to further the concepts of TIM and encourage the delivery of training throughout all responder professions. The primary TIM training course is the National Traffic Incident Responder Training – Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP) 2 Program. As of March 2019, almost 400,000 responders have been trained through the SHRP2 Program. While this is a significant number, it represents only about 35 percent of those who have been identified by their states as highway responders who would benefit from the training. Of the total responders trained, the law enforcement profession represents only 27 percent. Clearly, there remains work to be done in this area.
The National TIM goal for 2019 is to have 45 percent of identified responders trained. So far, 14 U.S. states, as well as Puerto Rico, have achieved that percentage and are continuing to train more responders. It is encouraging that law enforcement colleagues in Canada and Mexico are also participating and have trained almost 2,000 of their responders as well. Several states have incorporated TIM training and related operational practices into their basic police, fire, and EMS training academies, and others have added provisions to towing contracts and encouraged other disciplines to require training. But training isn’t the end goal; the focus should be on enhancing responder and motorist safety. Education and AwarenessThrough SafeShield, a subsection of SACOP, presentations about TIM have increased awareness among law enforcement leaders and provided a road map for creating a culture of safety in their agencies. Methods to incorporate telecommunicators in advising motorists of “fender bender” laws that, in many states, require motorists involved in a minor crash to move their vehicles off the roadway have developed. Partnerships have been established with departments of transportation and media to enhance awareness of Move Over laws that, in every U.S. state, require passing motorists to slow down or move over for stopped emergency vehicles (in some states, the requirement applies to utility and service vehicles, as well). Many agencies have conducted awareness and enforcement campaigns to highlight the importance of these laws. In one such enforcement campaign held in Apex, North Carolina, shortly after the 2018 NTIRAW, dozens of motorists were educated about the perils responders face on the roadways. Most did not know the law, but, now with that knowledge, they will operate more safely.
More work is indicated to educate the motoring public about their responsibility in highway safety. Aside from safer driving and seat belt use, motorists need to know the laws regarding Move Over and Quick Clearance, as well as other laws designed to keep them—and responders—safe. The IACP and others have prepared simple and straightforward public service announcements (PSAs) and other announcements, which the media should continue to air.
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Recommendations
What can law enforcement leaders do to help create this culture of safety around traffic incident management in their organizations? More importantly, how can leaders enhance the safety of officers and the staff of partner agencies during a traffic incident? There are many resources, organizations, and like-minded professionals who can help. Consider the following suggestions:
• Reach out to the state’s Department of Transportation/Governor’s Highway Safety Program TIM point of contact, your state or regional transportation officials, or your local TIM trainer. Learn what is going on in your area and join the effort.
• Adopt the TIM SHRP2 training as a requirement in your basic academy or training program, and provide in-service training to your existing staff. Encourage your state’s Police Officer Standards and Training (POST) organization to adopt the training as a requirement in the basic academy curriculum. Classes are offered both in a traditional classroom session as well as online.
• Coordinate with your tow agencies; municipal public works staff; and, of course, your fire and EMS partners to communicate, collaborate, and train together. When work is aligned, it is more effective and safer.
• Reach out to media representatives and encourage reporting on your jurisdictions’ Move Over, Quick Clearance, and related laws. Encourage your local media to air the IACP PSA or a PSA from the federal, state, provincial, regional, or local government.
• Use your social media presence to focus on traffic and responder safety. Highlight education, awareness, and enforcement efforts.
• Download the FHWA Outreach Toolkit and use the materials to increase awareness in your community.
• Participate in local, regional, state, or national awareness events and campaigns, such as the National Traffic Incident Response Awareness Week.
• Join the FHWA TIM Network and stay informed of leading practices from across the United States and other countries on traffic incident management.
• Reach out to the IACP Highway Safety Committee to learn more about the work it is doing in support of traffic safety.
• Attend a SafeShield meeting (held during the IACP Annual Conference and the Division Midyear meeting) to learn more about safety and wellness for your staff.
Conclusion
The bottom line is simple. What the law enforcement profession is doing is critically important to traffic incident management; the safety of responders; and, ultimately, the safety of communities. As a team, law enforcement leaders have made significant progress, but more work needs to be done. It is important for officers, agencies, families, and the motoring public. Whether an agency has primary responsibility for highway patrol and crash investigation, assists in these operations, or has any roadway system in its jurisdiction and the authority to assist motorists and enforce laws, it has a responsibility for traffic incident management. Law enforcement may never know the crash it prevents, but these efforts are preventing crashes and people are alive today as a result. TIM is not only about effective management of an incident on the roadways—it’s also about responder safety, which should make it a priority for every police leader. d
| The author acknowledges the input, review, and assistance of Chief Dan Sharp, Oro Valley, Arizona, Police Department, Chair of the IACP Highway Safety Committee. |
A condensed version of this article appears in the May 2019 issue of Police Chief.
Notes:
1 National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, “Causes of Law Enforcement Deaths,” updated March 19, 2019.
2 International Towing Museum, “Wall of the Fallen.”
3 Tim Harmon, Geni Bahar, and Frank Gross, Crash Costs for Highway Safety Analysis (Federal Highway Administration Office of Safety, January 2018).
4 Harmon, Bahar, and Gross, Crash Costs for Highway Safety Analysis.
5 Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), “Traffic Incident Management” (postcard).
6 FHWA, “Traffic Incident Management.”
Please cite as
John Letteney, “Traffic Incident Management for Responder Safety (extended version),” Traffic Safety Initiatives, Police Chief Online, May 1, 2019.
