Traffic Incident Management (TIM) Training

Performance Measurements and Reducing Secondary

Collisions

Tim Lane, Chief of EnforcementAz Department of TransportationEnforcement and Compliance Division602-712-8735

National Statistics

• Between 1987 and 2010 (24 years), 278 law enforcement officers were struck and killed by vehicles; that averages out to one officer killed each month.

• The fire service had five firefighters killed in “struck by” incidents in 2010, which accounted for about 6 percent of firefighter deaths.

• An average of 23 highway workers were struck and killed by vehicles each month in 2010 compared to 22 in 2009.

Arizona Model

“Arizona DPS has lost 28 officers, 15 were traffic related and 11 of those were involved in crashes that

were secondary to an initial traffic incident.”

These are only those that were killed, how many more were injured or

were lucky enough just to have their unoccupied

vehicles struck?

During calendar year 2011 the Arizona Highway Patrol investigated 1616 collisions which were secondary to a primary incident of these 541 were secondary to a prior collision and 54 involved first responders.

Training Effectiveness

• National TIM Training Effort– Tier One Responder Training

• (SHRP II, National TIM Responder Training)

– Tier Two Mid-Level Manager Training• FHWA Mid- Level Management Workshops

– Top 40 Cities by Population

– Tier Three Executive Brief

SHRP II Training

Traffic Incident Management (TIM) Course

SHRP IIDeveloped as a single, interdisciplinary course that introduces, teaches, and provides participants with hands-on, scenario-based opportunities to acquire and demonstrate common core competencies among :• Law Enforcement• Fire/Rescue• EMS• Department of Transportation• Tow and Recovery• Communications

• Response times• Roadway clearance times• Incident clearance times• Incident completion times• Secondary collision data

– Typically more severe than primary incident– Likelihood of involving a first responder

TIM Performance Measures

“Things that are measured get accomplished”

Definition

• Roadway Clearance Time: This interval is defined as the time between the first recordable awareness of an incident (detection, notification, or verification) by a responding agency and first confirmation that all traffic lanes are available for traffic flow.

Definition

• Incident Clearance Time: This interval is defined as the time between the first recordable awareness of the incident and the time at which the last responder has left the scene.

Definition

• Secondary Incidents (crashes): These incidents are identified as the number of unplanned incidents beginning with the time of detection of the primary incident where a collision occurs either within the incident scene or within the queue, including the opposite direction resulting from the original incident.

Effects of Congestion on First Responder Safety and Motorists

• 20% or more of all crashes are secondary in nature.

• 18% of all fatal crashes are secondary in nature.

• A vehicle sitting adjacent to the travel lanes or on the shoulder increases the risk of a secondary crash by 2.8%

• For every minute a roadway is blocked it takes 4 minutes to clear the related queue

Savings from reduced secondary crashes

Oct - Dec 2010: 4,793

• Non-Injury– Roadway Clearance: 45 min

– Incident Clearance: 84 min

• Injury– Roadway Clearance: 54 min

– Incident Clearance: 94 min

• Fatal– Roadway Clearance: 212 min

– Incident Clearance: 214 min

April - June 2011: 4,366 (-9%)

• Non-Injury– Roadway Clearance: 32 min (-28%)

– Incident Clearance: 40 min (-51%)

• Injury– Roadway Clearance: 46 min (-14%)

– Incident Clearance: 58min (-37%)

• Fatal– Roadway Clearance: 198 min (-6.78%)

– Incident Clearance: 211 min (-1.68%)

How Are You Doing?

Leveraging TIM benefits

• During the 2nd Qtr of fy2011 – 417,339 minutes were spend on the highway at crash

scenes (4797 crashes -averaging 87.6 minute clearance times).

• During the 4th Qtr of fy2011– Metro Phx HP using TIM strategies saved 46,800

minutes at highway crash scenes.– Using 2.8% per min increase in secondary crash

risks, that’s a reduction of 1,200 secondary crashes or about 10%

– Metro Phx averaged 6.07% secondary crashes compared to a national average of 20%

• During the 4th quarter of FY2011 our completion times were nearly the same, they were still completed, just off the roadway out of harms way.

• If 1200 secondary collisions were avoided with an 87 minute completion time that saved us 1740 hours that quarter, or 4 FTEs in a year.

Savings from reduced secondary crashes

Collection method

• We use TraCs10 as our mobile reporting software.

• Our crash report has the time of incident• When ADOT created our new form,15 fields

were included than could be used by any agency.

• We utilize those fields to collect, time roadway was reopened, time responders clear the scene, and secondary crash information.

Additional TIM Performance and TraCS

• TraCS Electronic enforcement documents– Officers are reporting much quicker traffic stop

completion times, nearly saving 10 minutes per stop– DPS/HPB stops nearly 500,000 violators a year– How many hours are saved? (47 FTEs)– How many secondary collisions are avoided?– What other positive or negative results are there?

• Un-obligated time during our first year of TIM went from 18% to 21% an increase from 2010 of nearly 3% or 44,565 hours.

– 1750 hours per full time employee (FTE)– 25 FTEs

• Where do we go from here?– Continue TIM training among Coalition– Memorialize TIM strategies as an HPD priority

in HPD Policy. – Add performance goals into HPD Strategic

Plan to:• Further reduce secondary collisions involving first

responders and motorists• Further reduce roadway clearance times• Further reduce incident clearance times

Success

Through the use of TIM Strategies we believe the AzDPS has:

• Reduced the risk to officers and motorists of secondary crashes.

• Increases available un-obligated time officers can use for proactive activities.

• Reduced non-reoccurring congestion.

Conclusion

• TIM Training and Performance Measures are critical to advancing TIM

• We all need to work together to get this done

• Please join the TIM Network• Thank You!