AASHTO Journal - New Jersey DOT Hosts TIM Training Exercise

The New Jersey Department of Transportation hosted a multi-disciplinary first responder Traffic Incident Management or TIM training exercise at the Camden County College Fire Academy on September 25 – training conducted in partnership with the New Jersey State Police, Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, Gloucester Township Fire Department, and Haine’s Towing and Reihl’s Towing companies.

To date, the New Jersey DOT and its partners have trained more than 17,000 emergency and incident response personnel in New Jersey alone, according to the agency, while PennDOT has helped train more than 14,000 in Pennsylvania.

[The video below highlights aspects of a national TIM training program developed through the second Strategic Highway Research or SHRP2 program five years ago.]

The New Jersey DOT noted in a statement that the all-day TIM training course covered eight hours of material, including classroom training and hands-on outdoor activities using actual vehicles with response equipment and traffic safety equipment to upright an overturned truck. It also included a New Jersey State Police helicopter landing at a temporary landing zone set up by first responders to simulate a medivac operation, the agency said.

The New Jersey DOT added that the need for TIM training is acute as numerous first responders across a number of transportation disciplines lose their lives every year while working in or near moving traffic. According to the agency, those annual deaths break down as follows:

Fire/Rescue and Emergency Medical Services or EMS personnel: six to eight per year.
Law Enforcement: 10 to 12 per year.
Towing/Recovery workers: 50 per year.
State DOT, Public Works, and Safety Service Patrol personnel: 100 per year, along with 20,000 annual injuries.