IMS Consortium Publishing Highway Response Guide
Highways can host a wide range of potential emergency incidents, ranging from minor fender-benders to bloody multi-vehicle pileups. With recent terrorist acts against transportation targets in Europe, it is even conceivable that terrorists could attack major U.S. arteries with bombs or other weapons.
Do you know how to handle such an incident in your jurisdiction?
If not, help is available. The National Fire Service Incident Management System Consortium has produced Model Procedures Guide for Highway Incidents, a document that guides application of the Incident Management System (IMS) to events occurring on these high-volume roadways.
Funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s ITS [Intelligent Transportation Systems] Public Safety Program, the Guide addresses command structures for potential events ranging from parades to hazmat spills. Its idea is that the IMS is adaptable enough to handle incidents as small as a single-car breakdown and as large as a major winter storm.
“In the event of an accident or an incident on the highways, a lot of different disciplines typically have to respond,” says Gene Chantler, one of the project’s leaders. “It’s beneficial if they have a system where they can work together, so they can each maximize the use of their resources and protect the safety of their responders and other people on the highways.”
The Guide discusses the factors involved in providing emergency services and unblocking traffic as quickly as possible; protecting incident responders and those under their care from moving vehicles; protecting other motorists, passengers and cargo from incident hazards; facilitating the movement of emergency vehicles to and from the scene; and facilitating traffic flow past the incident and throughout the area.
“What we wanted to do was to apply the same management principles we’ve been using in other types of incidents to highway incidents,” says Chantler. “It’s a management system that can grow in a modular fashion to meet the needs of the incident, whether it’s a one-car accident or something more major.”
The Model Procedures Guide for Highway Incidents will be published early this summer. It can be ordered from Fire Protection Publications, www.ifsta.org.
