19 national organizations launch traffic incident management goal

In an unprecedented show of unity among highway agencies, emergency medical professionals, firefighters, tow truck operators, and 9-11 call centers, 19 national organizations announced the launch of the National Unified Goal for Traffic Incident Management (NUG). The nation’s emergency responders are throttling up their efforts to keep traffic flowing, and ask that motorists return the favor by slowing down and moving over when they approach crash scenes.

Leading national responder organizations pledged to work together to improve communication and coordination at crash scenes in order to minimize factors that can delay road clearance. In turn, the responders ask that motorists slow down and move over when they approach traffic incident scenes, in order to reduce the number of responders injured and killed by passing vehicles while working at crash scenes, and to enable the responders to re-open travel lanes quicker.

Federal Highway (FHWA) Administrator J. Richard Capka congratulated the National Traffic Incident Management Coalition on its leadership in developing the NUG, and underscored the importance of safe, quick crash clearance. “Traffic congestion is one of the single largest threats to the nation's economic prosperity and way of life and costs the United States an estimated $200 billion per year,” Capka said. “Traffic incidents account for about one-quarter of all congestion on U.S. roadways. For every minute that a freeway travel lane is blocked during a peak travel period, four minutes of travel delay results after the incident is cleared. More efficient traffic incident management will reduce congestion and protect travelers and responders.”

“The International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) endorses the National Unified Goal, and is strongly committed to its implementation. Firefighters recognize the need to work with other disciplines to make crash scenes safer and to get the roads open as quickly as possible,” said IAFC Executive Director Mark Light.

“We join with our NTIMC partners in calling on motorists to use extra care as they approach and pass roadway emergency scenes. Vehicle-related incidents account for roughly 20 percent of firefighter deaths. A growing number of those are firefighters who are struck at the scene while helping others. Hundreds more are injured. It is a problem we share with all roadside responders, and together we need to work toward a solution,” said Light.

“If you, or your family members, are involved in a crash, you will depend on our emergency medical system (EMS) to care for you,” said Kevin McGinnis, Program Advisor to the National Association of State EMS Officials (NASEMSO).

“We ask that you, in turn, care for us. We join with other traffic incident responders in asking that you slow down and move over when you see ambulance crews and other responders working at crash scenes. NASEMSO endorses the National Unified Goal and is working through NTIMC to improve overall coordination and communication among all responders at traffic incident scenes, so we can maximize the chances that our patients will survive crashes with minimal injuries. We also share concern about keeping roadways open, so our ambulances can respond swiftly to all types of medical emergencies."

The NUG was launched at the Montgomery County Public Safety Communications Center in Gaithersburg, Md. County Executive Isiah Leggett and county police, fire, and transportation officials pledged through commitment to implement the NUG as a continuation of their longstanding efforts to apply the best traffic incident management techniques to cope with the National Capital Region’s challenging traffic environment.
The Washington, D.C., region is the second most congested urban area in the nation, according to the Texas Transportation Institute’s 2007 Annual Urban Mobility Report. Only Dallas-Forth Worth had a higher average number of annual hours of delay per traveler between 1982 and 2005.

“The National Unified Goal is Responder Safety; Safe, Quick Clearance; and Prompt, Reliable Incident Communications,” said NTIMC Chair John Corbin. “NTIMC developed the ‘NUG,’ as we call it, through a consensus-generation process that has taken about 18 months. The Coalition is proud to have pulled together such a broad spectrum of national organizations representing the traffic incident responders, and we will continue to provide national leadership for implementation of the 18 strategies defined by the NUG.”