WSDOT, in coordination with the Washington Traffic Incident Management Coalition (WaTIMCo), established in 2009 and supported through FHWA leadership, works to bring together traffic incident response partners across Washington State.
The goal is to ensure responders understand one another’s roles, responsibilities, and contributions to coordinated incident response operations on Washington roadways.
WaTIMCo is composed of Washington State Patrol, Washington State Department of Transportation, and the Washington Fire Chiefs, where a shared understanding among all responder disciplines is essential for life-saving operations, effective congestion management, and successful crash investigations.
Traffic Incident Management (TIM) by the numbers:
20,000: The average number of first responders injured annually nationwide while responding to traffic incidents.
2.8 billion gallons: The amount of fuel wasted annually nationwide due to being stuck in traffic.
4 minutes: How long traffic is delayed for every minute a lane is blocked.
39,000: Incident Responders potentially placed in harm’s way every day.
Responders are being struck and killed at traffic incidents in the US on an average of:
- 5 fire fighters each year,
- 1 law enforcement officer each month,
- 1 tow truck operator each week and numerous transportation professionals from DOT, Public Works and Safety Service Patrols each year.
It is time to collaboratively enhance our safety and efficiency on incident scenes by training as a single cross disciplined TIM team!
TIM encompasses strategies to safely and effectively clearing the roadways, but there is an emphasis on training so that regardless of discipline, all responders can coordinate and communicate effectively. The FHWA National TIM Responder Training Program was developed by responders for responders and was designed to establish the foundation for and promote consistent training of all responders nationwide.
