ITD and other agencies
collaborate for safety

When cars crash into each other, ITD isn’t the only agency on scene, even if we are the first ones to arrive.

Responding to collisions is at the heart of traffic incident management, and in October employees from District 1 and District 2 led a training on best practices for other employees and emergency responders.

Duties and priorities on a crash scene vary agency to agency, making it imperative to know how the other works. For example, Idaho State Police focus on gathering data for further investigation, while ITD is all about getting the incident cleared and managing traffic in the meantime.

Tactics that ITD uses—such as the angling of trucks and placement of cones and signage—may not be readily apparent to other agencies, which can create conflict or confusion on scene.

To eliminate that and promote the safest working environment, several ITD employees volunteered to lead the first-ever session in District 1 on traffic incident management.

Mike Margason (D1), Mel Fisher (D1), Bud Converse (D2), Kelvin Murphy (D2) and Mike Towne (D2) were among the individuals to make this event possible, bringing important lessons to an audience of approximately 35 people from Washington and Idaho.

“I heard numerous positive comments on the training, plus the respect they have for ITD and the job we do,” said Neal Murphy, ITD Emergency Management Planner and champion of TIM training.

Murphy aims to schedule TIM training in all of the districts.

 

Published 11-01-19