Development of a Highway Incident Management Operational and Training Guide: Phase II

The overall goal of both phases of this project was to reduce responder fatalities and injuries, as well as to prevent secondary crashes, especially those involving incident responders. The phases of this project worked toward this goal by creating training materials to help incident responders work more safely and effectively.

To address the need for promptly training all traffic incident responders in the state of Illinois, Phase II of this project created online modules to supplement the in-class training developed in Phase I. Based on the recommendations of the Technical Review Panel, responder feedback, and suggestions from the Federal Highway Administration, we identified material that could be presented online as a prerequisite to the classroom-based training.

Additionally, this project modified the existing in-class training to obtain endorsement by the Federal Highway Administration as equivalent to their national program. The researchers created 11 online training modules, each lasting between 15 and 30 minutes, to allow responders to view a whole module in one sitting. The researchers also created an online training video game and an in-class trivia game. The video game allows responders to refine their traffic control and vehicle-positioning skills. The trivia game helps reinforce knowledge gained during the in-class training.

Together, the online and in-class training materials created throughout both phases of this research project can provide education to those responding to traffic incidents in Illinois. It is expected that as more responders completing this training program, their incident-scene safety will also improve.