United States Department of Transportation
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Integration of the incident command system (ICS) protocol for effective coordination of multi-agency response to traffic incidents : final report.
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2017-06-13
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[PDF-7.92 MB]
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Edition:Final report
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Abstract:In recent years, there has been an increased focus on Traffic Incident Management (TIM) and
incorporation of the Incident Command System (ICS) to reduce traffic congestion on the nation's
Interstates. In fact, studies show that for every minute a freeway lane is blocked due to an incident,
there is a corresponding time of four minutes of travel delay, and the likelihood of a secondary crash
increases by 2.8% for every minute that the primary incident remains a hazard. Efficiencies resulting
from adoption of coordinated multi-agency response through ICS can reduce the impact of non-recurrent
traffic congestion caused by traffic incidents on major roadways. This project investigated
the effectiveness of multi-stakeholder agency coordinated ICS strategies for managing traffic
incidents by considering their potential impacts in reducing incident duration. Between 2012 and
2013, there were 129 fatal incidents recorded on SC Interstates. Roughly half of the fatal incident
recovery times (dispatch of response to incident cleared) were in excess of six hours, with maximum
recovery times well over 12 hours. These clearance and recovery times are significantly higher than
those in other states. States which have implemented enhanced ICS and TIM procedures are
consistently achieving major incident clearance times of one and a half hours or less. After analyzing
the current state-of-practice in South Carolina, and national best practices, the potential areas for
improvement in incident response were identified. The TIM areas most in need of improvement were
response and clearance strategies, with major gaps noted in towing, coroner, HAZMAT, and crash
investigation procedures.
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