Living in the Line of Duty

Each year, an estimated average of 5 firefighters, 12 law enforcement officers, and more than 60 employees of State departments of transportation (DOTs) lose their lives in the line of duty. Deaths of firefighters and other public safety responders, along with an unknown number of injuries and near-miss incidents, occur on all types of roadways, making safety an essential mission for all public highway officials.

The second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP2) underscored the importance of how public safety responders plan for and respond to vehicle crashes. As a result, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) enhanced a Traffic Incident Management (TIM) program to coordinate development and dissemination of information to help State and local officials detect, respond to, and remove traffic incidents and restore traffic capacity as safely and quickly as possible.  

This is the third article in the Public Roads’ TIM series. It takes a look at how leadership in the firefighting community is rolling out TIM practices among its members. The previous articles have detailed FHWA’s role in establishing and managing the national program and the development and deployment of that training.