INTRODUCTION TO INCIDENT MANAGEMENT IN ROAD ACCIDENTS
- Incident management is a coordinated and planned approach for responding to incidents when they occur on highway systems. It involves the systematic use of human and mechanical processes for detecting, responding to and clearing incidents.
- Effective traffic incident management reduces the duration and impacts of traffic incidents and improves the safety of motorists, crash victims and emergency responders.
- Agencies typically responding to highway incidents include:
• Police
• Fire
• Towing and recovery
• Emergency medical service (EMS)
• Hazardous material
• Transportation agencies
• Media - An “incident” is defined as any non-recurring event that causes a reduction of roadway capacity or an abnormal increase in demand. Such events include traffic crashes, disabled vehicles, spilled cargo, highway maintenance and reconstruction projects, and special non-emergency events (e.g., ball games, concerts, or any other event that significantly affects roadway operations).
- All the functions (seven activities) that together comprise the process of incident management is as follows:
- Detection
- Verification
- Motorist Information
- Response
- Site Management
- Traffic Management and
- Clearance
Traffic Incident Management (TIM) is a planned and coordinated program process to
- detect,
- respond to, and remove traffic incidents and
- restore traffic capacity as safely and quickly as possible.
Effective TIM reduces the duration and impacts of traffic incidents and improves the safety of motorists, crash victims and emergency responders.
The National Highways Authority of India is in the process of rolling-out an integrated setup through the Traffic Incident Emergency Management System (TIMS). Under TIMS:
- Incident Management Contractors to be appointed at state/regional office level for providing ambulances, tow-away cranes and highway surveillance vehicles across all highways in the state/region
- Regional Command and Control Centre for monitoring and operations, in the States of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh on a pilot basis.
- In each of the pilot states of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, tentatively 100 - 110 additional ambulances are planned to be provided through the Incident Management service contractor.
- On successful implementation in these two states, the program will then be scaled up to a national level.
National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has decided to introduce a robust system to promptly detect accidents and any incidents such as traffic jams or breakdown of vehicles across its stretches.
- To begin with, the incident management system will cover nearly 11,000 km in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.
- These stretches will have adequate deployment of ambulances, surveillance vehicles, tow-away cranes at regular intervals.
- All these will be mapped, connected and controlled by an IT-based regional command centre for real- time detection of incidents and quick response.
The operators of TIM services would provide
- Two patient capacity’ ambulance at every 40 - 45 km or a ‘four patient capacity ambulance’ at every 100 km
- 24X7 surveillance vehicles. Surveillance vehicles to cover the assigned stretch at least once every four hours. The in-charge of these vehicles to inform about any incident to the regional centre and police.
- They would provide mechanical assistance in case of vehicle breakdowns and basic mechanical repairs, provide fuel and water to stranded motorists enabling them to reach the closest fuel station.
- Operators will be required to put overhead electronic display to alert users about traffic status on the stretch and other information.
