The U.S. Federal Highway Administration released a report that includes recommendations to improve traffic incident response in the United States.
The recommendations are based on an April 2005 scanning tour on traffic incident response practices, procedures, and technologies of England, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden that assessed and evaluated various practices for responding to traffic incidents.
The recommendations are organised under the three primary themes of programs and institutions, tactical and on-scene management, and communications and technology.
Effective response to traffic incidents can enhance safety and mobility for both road users and responders. During its study, the scan team observed several common attributes among the organisations in each country involved with incident response.
They include a national authority with responsibility for coordinating incident response, national transportation agencies with traffic patrols that respond to incidents, clear jurisdictional responsibility for the police authority responding to incidents in an area, coordinated training for all major incident responders, and national auto clubs that provide roadside repair and towing services.
The team developed 25 recommendations for potential implementation in the United States. They include adopting a national goal for incident response, developing national guidance on incident response performance measures, and establishing Transportation Operations Centers of Excellence for incident response research.