Coordinating incident response: guidelines demonstrate how agencies can apply unified command to managing highway emergencies

Public Roads, March-April, 2004 by K. Craig Allred

Highway incidents vary in type and scale--from life-threatening traffic-stoppers such as a multivehicle pileup or hazardous material (hazmat) spill on an Interstate to a minor no-injury, one-car crash into a stop sign on a residential street. Because more than half of the situations involving traffic congestion are generated by incident-related delays, highway agencies have a major stake in the efficient management of roadway incident scenes to restore normal traffic flow as quickly as possible.

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Highway agencies typically have no direct control over how quickly a roadway is cleared after an incident because emergency scenes are controlled by the first-response agencies that have statutory jurisdiction (fire, emergency medical services, and law enforcement). Highway agencies usually are considered "second responders," with a mission to clear the roadway and restore traffic flow after the first responders have addressed the primary mission of protecting public safety and health. In practice, first and second responders usually cooperate to recover normal traffic flow as quickly as possible. But what happens when a crash blocks the roadway longer than necessary, and highway agencies have no influence on decisions about how to manage the incident?

In the 1970s, fire services developed the concept of "unified command" as a way to take into account the missions of all responding agencies when making decisions at the scene of an incident. The ultimate goal was to serve the public interest most effectively. Incident management systems (IMS) were developed to provide the organizational framework for applying the concept of unified command.

The Model Procedures Guide for Highway Incidents, a draft document developed by the National Fire Service Incident Management System Consortium, shows how an IMS used for many years by the fire service and emergency management agencies can be applied to various types of highway incidents.

Funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation's (USDOT) Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Public Safety Program, the guide adapts the consortium's IMS to highway incident operations. The document provides examples of command structures for a wide variety of highway incident scenarios--from terrorist events to winter storms, parades, hazmat spills, and typical motor vehicle crashes.

Safety and Traffic Flow: Important Objectives

The Model Procedures Guide for Highway Incidents addresses the need to balance the safety of motorists, responders, and victims with the need to restore traffic flow. The Model Procedures Committee encourages incident commanders to consider the following factors when managing a highway incident:

* Provide emergency services and remove the traffic blockage as quickly as possible

* Protect responders (and those in their care) from being struck by moving vehicles

* Protect motorists, passengers, and cargo from the hazards of the incident

* Facilitate the movement of emergency response vehicles

* Facilitate traffic flow past the incident and throughout the region

Highway agencies can achieve many benefits from working with other responding agencies to adopt common guidelines for managing highway incidents. Written guidelines provide a standardized, predictable approach and may be applied routinely. They provide a training tool for responders, offer a baseline for critiques and reviews of incidents, and make the commander's operations more effective. Written guidelines either can reflect strict policies or allow flexibility in managing incidents.

Scenario-Based Guidelines

The Model Procedures Guide for Highway Incidents contains a series of scenarios, with an example for each scenario of a complete, systematic organizational structure based on the IMS. The structure is designed to provide the major functions of command, operations, planning, logistics, and finance and administration. Local agencies decide how to provide staffing for standardized tasks.

The committee designed this IMS for use during all types and sizes of highway incidents, from routine mechanical breakdowns and crashes to severe weather and terrorist events. The IMS enables the organizational structure to expand and contract according to the severity and circumstances of the incident, facilitating a smooth transition between single-unit responses and multiagency operations.

The IMS builds the organization from the ground up, adding functional units for new activities. The incident is partitioned into manageable tasks, and the best-qualified response resources are assigned to each need. As the incident grows in complexity, the system maintains a safe span of control and ensures that all activity is conducted under a single chain of command. The IMS ensures the safety of responders, crash victims, and motorists, while responders mitigate the impact of the incident on traffic flow and the surrounding community.

The concepts in the guide were proven effective by emergency service crews, who also fine-tuned the IMS in the field over nearly 30 years, and the American National Standards Institute codified IMS as National Fire Protection Association Standard 1561. Nonemergency responders--such as transportation, public works, and public health agencies--also can be incorporated into the IMS organization. The terminology used in the guide was chosen carefully to convey a uniform message to users from all response professions and for all levels of Government.