Professional Incident Management

CIB/ Traffic and InfrastructureDepartment of Mechanical EngineeringFaculty of EngineeringKatholieke Universiteit LeuvenBen Immers

1993: kick-off

IM program in the Netherlands

Situation in 1993:

• Chaos at the incident site

• Chaos in the emergency rooms

• Strictly separated communication lines

• No clear assignment of responsibilities

• Time-consuming procedures

• Lack of expertise and best practices

• Culture of blaming the other for …

• Etc. etc.

Find

the victim!

The current

situation

• 3250 km motorway

• 3 million road-users daily

• 150.000 traffic jams in 2008

• 50.000 incidents each year

• economic damage of traffic jams caused by accidents: € 500.000.000 yearly (Total costs traffic jams €2,7-€3,2 billion)

Amsterdam •

Rotterdam •• Utrecht

Number of incidents yearly

• The road-user does not expect it

• The road-user is not prepared for it

• The road-user gets frustrated by it

Congestion caused by incidents

Economic impact of incidents

Costs of traffic Jams: €2,500.00 per lane/ per kilometer/per hour

€ 2,500.00 € 2,500.00 € 2,500.00 € 2,500.00

Unexpected

delay

Stressed

network

Totaal

50

100

150

200

250

1980 1985 1991 1995 2000 2006

Lengte wegennet Vervoersvraag

100110120130140150160170180

1980

1982

1984

1986

1988

1990

1992

1994

1996

1998

Inde

x 19

80 =

100

VMT (millions) Lane Mile Index

No longer a big city problem- Congestion in small areas grew 300%

“Never before in this century, except during the two world wars, has the country’s transportation system been as stressed as it is now” –

Washington Post 5/15/01

Vehicle travel up 72% Road Miles, up 1%

1980-1998

The importance of a quick response

A B

time

Duration incident without IM

incident

occurrence

Departure rate

Duration incident with IM

C

Arrival rate D

Departure rate

Ncum

Incident Management is more than traffic throughput.

• Traffic throughput (quick clearance of the road for traffic operations)

And also …

• Representation of the interests of casualties (safety, support)

• Safety of service providers

• Traffic safety

• The question of guilt (finding traces)

• Damage control

• Traffic control

• Traffic information to road users, media, …

• Clearing the incident location (debris)

Incident Management: What is it?

Incident Management (IM) is:

1. coordinated deployment of IM emergency-services

2. multidisciplinary exchange of information

3. multidisciplinary measures to safely clear the

roadway as quickly as possible after an incident

4. active participation of all stakeholders

(also road user, insurance, trucking, ANWB, etc.)

• Police control room & incident location

• Ambulance control room & incident location

• Fire department control room & incident location

• Road authority control room & incident location

• Recovery/breakdown control room & incident location

IM: co-operation between service providers

IM: information exchange

• Police

• Ambulance

• Fire department

• Road authority

• Recovery/breakdown

IM: multidisciplinary measures

DVD

Directive

Priorities

• Effective and efficient response of emergency service providers in case of an incident, with emphasis on:

safety of emergency service providerssafety of casualtiessafety of other road users (avoiding secondary incidents)adequate diagnosis severity incident (upgrading)liability (the question of guilt)speed of incident response (removal of road-blockage, back to normal flow conditions)

• Dilemma’s BALANCEresponder safety;victim care;motorist safety;restoration of traffic flowcollision investigation

Dilemmas• Restoring traffic flow versus collision investigation

• Restoring traffic flow versus safety service provider

• Restoring traffic flow versus casualty care

• Restoring traffic flow versus traffic performance acrossthe rest of the system

• Self-interest versus shared mutual interest

• Working to agreed versus tailored emergency activitiesschedules

• Selecting (towing) on tariffs versus selecting on quality of recovery

• Soldiering on together versus handling control in one hand

• Criminal justice versus administrative law

• Public (road inspector) versus market (towing)

Characteristics

IM approach

in the Netherlands

anno 2009

IM = Cn On : the chemistry of Incident Management

C1 O1 = Collaboration within and outside of the organisationC2 O2 = Coordination of activities (Unified Command COPI)C3 O3 = Communication between service providers during

IM process (C2000, network centric approach)C4 O4 = Commitment: agreement on operating procedures

and standards of work (SLA + PIN)C5 O5 = Culture: learn from each other (cross training)C6 O6 = Costs: an eye for cost-benefit analysis

Characteristics

IM approach

in the Netherlands

(cont’d)

• Uniform, nationwide approach: Nationwide introduction of standard procedures (on national and regional network)

• Effectiveness of proposed measures is checked by means of pilot studies

• Unified command at the incident site (COPI)

• Emphasis on collaboration, co-ordination and communication between service providers. Intensive co-operation between emergency response services (sharing the same emergency room)

• Role and responsibilities of each service provider is laid down in manuals (the same all over the country): no ambiguity on what needs to be done and who is responsible

• Important role for insurance companies and branch organisations; towing companies compete for regional contracts

• Integrated approach (technology, organization, communication; cross training)

Characteristics

IM approach

in the Netherlands

(cont’d)

• Uniform, nationwide approach: Nationwide introduction of standard procedures (on national and regional network)

Incident Management is regulated by:

1. National passenger car recovery scheme (response time 20 min.)

2. National lorry recovery scheme (response time 60 min.)

Incident Management: two

national

schemes

• The new policy has reduced the handling time of incidents: - passenger cars are handled 15 minutes faster - lorries 60-90 minutes faster.

• reduction of congestion caused by incidents of at least 25%. annual saving of 150 million Euros (2003)

• reduction of secondary accidents:- accidents at the tail end of the traffic jam, and- rubbernecking accidents on the other carriageway.

Effects

and benefits

of Incident Management

Achievements

• Clear division of tasks, responsibilities and competences between police, fire service, ambulance and highways agency

• Organisation of joint exercises and international study trips• The introduction of the national central incidents room (E112) for car

recovery • The introduction of the national central incidents room for truck

recovery• The introduction of highway inspectors and duty officers• The application of IM to the regional and municipal road network

It is estimated that, without these measures, the loss of vehicle driving hours in 2003 would amount 99,848 compared to 60,518 HDV now (annual saving of 150 million Euros )

Impact of IM

Vehicle hours lost per day due to incidents

0

20000

40000

60000

80000

100000

120000

140000

160000

180000

200000

2003 2010 2020

Met IMZonder IMWith IM

Without IM

What

could

be

done

better!

• Communication needs to be further improved (network-centric approach)

• Lack of data (data collection) – evaluation – feedback on existing approach

• Attitude towards improvement ⇒ appreciation/ better understanding of each other’s tasks in the IM process

• Poor integration of Incident Management and Traffic ManagementFocus on assisting road users: fallback options + quick response

• Administrative and political integration of IM emergency services

• Improvement of the visibility of the application of IM to the road user and to society

Knowing that:• IM is not core business for most service providers• High labour turnover (police, fire)

Possible

Incident Management measures

• Integration of incident rooms and traffic control centres

• Interdisciplinary exercises and joint evaluations

• Improvements in existing procedures for reporting incidents

• eCall

• Rapid information on hazardous substances

• Rapid towing of vehicles at incidents

• Availability of camera images to the emergency services

• Feedback from past lessons for incident prevention

Expansion of eCall

architecture

Mobile

Fix Line’s

KPN-Infrastrucure1-1-2MobilePSAP

Call Center Central-Database

1-1-2 MSD

Call with FSD

Information request

Information request

Information about the accident(status, # passengers, type of auto) Technical information about cars

TimestampLocation

Vehicle IDFrom MSD

Incident management

Traffic management

Salvage

Traffic information:Accident report.

TCC

TIC

Dynamic route guidance:

Accident warning

Private services

Impact of incidents

Expected delayon road section

Probability of incidenton road section

Σ Impact on the national level

Impact of incident on road section

Vehicle hours lost per day due to incidents

Probability of incidenton road sectionProbability of incident

on road sectionProbability of incidenton road section

Impact of incident on road sectionImpact of incident

on road sectionImpact of incident on road section

Expected delayon road sectionExpected delay

on road sectionExpected delayon road section

Results of various measures

MeasureHLV/day by

incidents Share in HLVDifference with

reference

Exercises and evaluations 105686 26,7% -9,5%

Rapid towing 109894 27,7% -5,9%

Integrating incident rooms 112089 28,3% -4,1%

Reporting via eCall 112089 28,3% -4,1%

Camera images for emergencyservices 112268 28,3% -3,9%

Schemes for reporting incidents 114444 28,9% -2,0%

Incident prevention 116033 29,3% -0,7%

Rapid information on hazardous substances 116261 29,3% -0,5%

How

to organise

change

• Study tours (scanning tours) to the USA

• Pilots (testing new measures)

• Organisational structure of IMIM Council National Platform for IMProject Office IM

• Organisation of meetings (on a regular basis) where IM service providers meet each other (e.g. cross training and safety days: focus on safety at the accident location - 4500 participants)

Organisational structure of IM

• IM Council

• National Platform for IM

• Project Office IM

StrategyIM

Council

TacticsNational Platform IM

Operations

Programme Bureau IM

IM Council

• Delegation of partners IM chain Each member of the IM chain is represented in the IM Council

• Responsibilities of the IM CouncilConsultations on a strategic levelMedium and long term policy directions (formulation SMART objectives)Implementing and securing of new initiatives within the own organisation. (at least) 4 meetings a year

The National Platform for

Incident Management

• Delegation of partners IM chainEach member of the IM chain is represented in the NP IM

• responsibilities of the NP IM consultations on the tactical levelresponsible for realisation of the SMART objectives formulated for the year 2015co-ordination of new initiatives (pilots)gives account (and reports) to the IM Council

Programme

Bureau Incident Management

• Delegation of partners IM chainPolice and road authority are represented in the PB IM Support from other partners

• Responsibilities of the PB IM the realisation of various IM projects (part of the realisation of the 2015 ambition)

masterplan: embedding and fine-tuning the various projectscommunication (road users, politicians, etc.) gives account (and reports) to the NP IM

SMART objectives

• GeneralAvailability of data describing the (handling of the) IM processAll service providers work according to predefined and consistent protocols

• SafetySignificant reduction of the (safety) risks experienced by the service providers25% reduction of time needed to stabilise casualtiesImmediate reporting of hazardous substancesEffective surveillance of tail of queue (# secondary incidents: -25%)

• The question of guiltAll service providers do know when tracks and traces need to be investigated/collectedSignificant reduction (-25%) of time needed for the collection of tracks and traces

SMART objectives

(cont.)

• IM processsignificant reduction (- 25%) of incident clearance time

• Information supply to road users and channelswithin a timeframe of 5 minutes (after detection) road users (and media) will be informed on relevant incident characteristics (applies to 80% of all accidents)

• Organisation of IM processwithin 2 years (starting from 2008) an open and real-time exchange of incident data will have been established between IM service providers only skilled (certified) employees will take part in the IM process. Each IM service provider on the spot is familiar with:

common IM procedures IM Protocols of other service providers

Ambitions for the future

• Focus on customer interests + customer education

• Administrative and political integration of IM emergency services

• Uniformity in the application of IM emergency service procedures

• Further improvement of the speed of providing emergency services

• Further improvement of the quality of emergency assistance

• Integration of Incident Management and Dynamic Traffic Management

• Improvement of the visibility of the application of IM to the road user and to society

• Clear financing structure of the IM emergency service process

• The institution of IM as a process of continuous improvement

Conclusions

• IM is more than restoring traffic flow conditions dilemmas

• We made considerable progress in what we would like to achieve

But we need to improve continuously, therefore:

• Active and continuous support of all stakeholders is prerequisite

• Organizational and institutional changes require much effort and time

• Learning environment requires feedback data

• Focus on improving ‘customer services’ could serve as a guideline for future ambitions

And remember, whatever happens, stay focused!

Incident Management: useful?

2 hours later