In July of 2002, under the Joint Operations Policy Statement, the WSP, Washington State Association of Fire Chiefs (WSAFC) and WSDOT proposed a plan to manage resources responding to, mitigating, investigating, and clearing highway lanes and ferry routes. In May of 2003, the three partners considered traffic incident management (TIM) training, and established a TIM training committee.

Since that time, representatives from WSDOT, WSP and Fire and EMS Services worked to develop training that encourages and enables the development of local response plans within the state.

The training group developed a format for TIM training a facilitation model instead of the traditional lecture-based curriculum. The format, based on student-centered learning, allows trainees to participate and focus on forming partnerships.