NCJ Number
137679
Journal
Police Chief Volume: 59 Issue: 7 Dated: (July 1992) Pages: 15,19-20,22-23
Date Published
1992
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This article discusses the development of a freeway-incident management (FIM) plan, FIM components, and review of the FIM plan and its execution.
Abstract
The blocking of one lane of a three-lane freeway for 20 minutes (the average time for accident clearance) at peak freeway use will cause motorists 1,200 vehicle hours in delay. To minimize the effects of such incidents on traffic congestion and reduce the possibility of secondary incidents, an effective FIM should reduce the time for incident detection and verification, reduce response time by appropriate agencies, provide on-scene management of personnel and traffic, reduce the time spent to clear the incident from the roadway, and provide accurate and timely information to the public so as to divert traffic from the incident. The first step in the development of a FIM plan is to examine the locality's needs; the second step is to identify those public and private resources that have a vested interest in transportation planning and safety. Each of these agencies should then provide a command-level person for an initial conference. This group will then determine how best to use existing resources to improve detection, verification, response, clearance, and recovery. This article discusses the seven components of freeway incident management: preplanning, detection and verification, response time, site management, clearance time, motorist information, and recovery time. A review of the effectiveness of a FIM plan and its execution should determine whether the FIM was timely, what went right, and what could be improved.