The Indiana Division

Indiana Quick Clearance Working Group

2008

Traffic Incidents

• Increase Congestion
• Increase the risk of secondary crashes
• Increase the risk of responders

Why should we address the impacts of Traffic Incidents?

Safety of Responders

• About 20 percent of all firefighter deaths are not related to firefighting, but occur due to vehicle-related incidents.

• According to FBI statistics, between 1995 and 2006, an average of one U.S. law enforcement officer was struck and killed each month by a passing vehicle.

• Data on deaths of towing service professionals in struck-by incidents is not well documented, but the Towing and Recovery Association of America says it is a growing concern.

Safety Impact

• Crashes that result from other incidents (secondary) are estimated to be 20% of all crashes.

• Chances of a Secondary Crash increase by 2.8% for each minute the primary incident is not cleared.

• These Secondary Crashes are estimated to cause 18% of deaths on freeways.

Congestion Impact

• Incidents are estimated to cause 54% of the non-recurring congestion in urban areas.

• Non-recurring congestion leads to a lack of travel time reliability in the transportation system.

For every minute that a freeway travel lane is blocked during a peak travel period, four minutes of travel delay results after the incident is cleared.

Economic Impact

• The freight industry is the rolling warehouse of America and missing “Just in Time” deliveries due to unreliable travel times means increased business costs.

• Road congestion annually results in an estimated 2.3 billion gallons of wasted fuel.

What is a Traffic Incident?

• Any non-recurring event that causes capacity reduction or increased demand

What is Traffic Incident Management (TIM)?

• The organized cooperative effort of multiple agencies to
  • detect & verify incidents
  • respond to & manage the scene
  • manage traffic
  • provide traveler information
  • clear the incident

What is Quick Clearance?

Quick Clearanceof a traffic incident is the practice of safely and rapidly removing temporary obstructions from the roadway. Such obstructions include disabled or crashed vehicles, debris, or spilled cargo.

Benefits Of Quick Clearance

• Reduces the probability of secondary incidents

• Improves the Safety of incident responders

• Reduces Congestion including the cost of delay to freight industry

Purpose for Indiana’s Quick Clearance

For Indiana to have traffic incident responders, from all disciplines, follow agreed-upon multidisciplinary procedures!

Making the Case for Quick Clearance

• In 2006, nationwide, there were 5,973,000 traffic crashes with 42,642 fatalities and 2,575,000 people injured in traffic crashes. (NHTSA March 2008)

• In 2006, Indiana reported 192,698 traffic crashes, 899 fatalities and 56,120 people were injured. (ICJI)

Making the Case for Quick Clearance

Indiana Impacts:

• In 2006, it is estimated that 20% of the Indiana crashes were secondary crashes, which equals 38,540 crashes.

• According to the 2007 Urban Mobility Report 52% of Indiana’s congestion delay is due to incidents in Central Indiana (Texas Transportation Institute)

* David Schrank and Tim Lomax, “The 2007 Urban Mobility Report,” Texas Transportation Institute

Urban Area – The developed area (population density more than 1,000 persons per square mile) within a metropolitan region. The urban area boundaries change frequently (every year for most growing areas). The annual change in miles traveled, therefore, includes both new travel due to growth and travel that previously occurred in areas designated as rural.

• Cost Components (Assumptions)
• Value of time ($/hour) = $14.50 per hour
• Commercial Cost ($/hour) = $77.10
• Fuel Cost ($/gallon) = $2.26

Making the Case for Quick Clearance

The Costs of Congestion

• Urban traffic congestion costs the USA $78.2 billion per annum

• In 2005, congestion caused 4.2 billion hours of travel delay and 2.9 billion gallons of wasted fuel nationwide

Making the Case for Quick Clearance

The Cost of Vehicle Traffic Crashes in Indiana

• 2000- $4.346 Billion (NHTSA Traffic Statistics)

• Congestion in the Indianapolis area cost $478 million in 2005.

  • 24.3 million hours of delay

  • 16 million gallons of wasted fuel

  • If you live in the Indianapolis area, congestion costs you about 43 hoursof delay, 28 gallons of fuel, and$836 a year

90 Minutes vs. 75 Minutes Clearance Time: What’s the Value of 15 minutes saved?

• Washington State Example:
  • I-5 northbound (Seattle Area)
  • Average 8% trucks
  • Two (of four) lanes blocked
  • 6:00 a.m., typical Wednesday
  • $14 - $18/hour Auto Delay Cost
  • $56/hour Truck Delay Cost
• Societal cost savings of clearing 15 minutes faster = $146,000

Travel Delay – Travel time above that needed to complete a trip at free-flow speeds. Free-flow speeds (60 mph on freeways and 35 mph on principal
arterials) are used as the national comparison thresholds. Other speed values may be appropriate for specific urban areas.

Annual Delay per Traveler – Extra travel time for peak period during the year divided by the number of travelers who begin a trip during the peak period
(6 to 9 a.m. and 4 to 7 p.m.).

Travel Time Index – The ratio of travel time in the peak period to the travel time at free-flow conditions. A value of 1.35 indicates a 20-minute free-flow
trip takes 27 minutes in the peak.

Excess Fuel Consumed – Increased fuel consumption due to travel in congested conditions rather than free-flow conditions.

Public Transportation – Regular route service from all public transportation providers in an urban area.

Operations Treatments – Freeway incident management, freeway ramp metering, arterial street signal coordination and arterial street access
management.

Congestion Cost – Value of travel delay for 2003 (estimated at $13.75 per hour of person travel and $72.65 per hour of truck time) and excess fuel
consumption (estimated using state average cost per gallon).

Urban Area – The developed area (population density more than 1,000 persons per square mile) within a metropolitan region. The urban area
boundaries change frequently (every year for most growing areas). The annual change in miles traveled, therefore, includes both new travel due to
growth and travel that previously occurred in areas designated as rural.

How Much Does A Collision Like This Cost?

Costs not included:

• Hospital / Medical
• Court / Fines
• Increased Insurance Societal Costs (lost time and revenue due to delay)

• Towing $10,000.00
• Ambulance $4,500.00
• Clean-up $6,800.00
• Department of Transportation $13,000.00
• Department of Ecology $500.00
• WSP $4,200.00
• Damage to Vehicles $30,000.00
• Trucking Company $80,000.00
• Emergency Airlift $5,000.00
• Fire Department $570.00
• Local Police Departments $500.00
• Total Costs = $155,070.00 (Estimated Minimum)

Blok-Buster Activation 8-21-07
WB 512 to SB I-5

Cargo: 38,000 lbs Empty Wine Bottles
Bill’s and Gene’s Towing (Partnership)
(Structural integrity of trailer compromised, load had to be unloaded manually)
Start of incident to all lanes open = 2 hrs, 13 min
Recovery time (all lanes open): 37 minutes
Unload trailer: 4 ½ hours
Total incident time: 7 hrs, 9 min
Estimated Lane Blockage time saved: 4.5 to 5 hours

Blok-Buster Activation 8-21-07
WB 512 to SB I-5

Two 50 ton S1 Rotators were able
To relocate the wreckage off the roadway
In 37 minutes

Indiana Effort

• Quick Clearance Working Group

  • Formed January 2008

  • Addressing a prioritized list of Quick Clearance Topics

  • Multidisciplinary approach

Working Together

to make travel in Indiana safer and more efficient!

Legislative needs

High Priority

• Hold Harmless Law- Liability Protection for properly trained persons to act/direct action during an incident, vehicle and cargo removal.

• Driver Vehicle Removal- “Move It Law” move your vehicle off the roadway when possible, improve IC 9-26-1-2

• Abandoned Vehicles- currently 72 hours, change to 12 hours

Policy changes

High Priority

Spill notification and cleanup-

LE- to call IDEM any time a spill of hazardous cargo is discovered to include the rupture of a fuel tank

LE- Disregard emergency gear enroute to an incident

Policy changes

High Priority

• Incident removal- LE stage or relocate a traffic incident out of the roadway and/or to a safer location

• Incident Scene Management- all disciplines need common training of on scene management that points us all to responder safety and quick clearance

  • Gear ISM training to the Incident Scene Management System and the Traffic Incident Management criteria

  • MOU between disciplines for common policy and training

• Crash Reports- add category to indicate a spill

  • Add category to indicate secondary crash

Policy changes

Medium Priority

• Superload Movement-

  ISP - pilot message boards for back window of commissions to see effectiveness to alleviate unwillingness of drivers to pass a police vehicle with lights on

  • ISP to review current escort policies

• DOR/INDOT- consolidation of permits and forms electronic

• Look into a statewide escort service certification

Policy changes

Medium Priority

• Move Over Law- education campaign for all emergency lights, better describe emergency vehicle

• After Action Reporting- LE encouraged to initiate after action briefings for any incident going over 90 minutes

• IDEM Emergency Vehicle Status- not currently indicated as an emergency vehicle

Policy changes

Low Priority

• Spill Cleanup costs-

  DOR/MCS- propose revocation of a companies IFTA Agreement on companies that do not pay IDEM, INDOT, FDHM or EMA for their hazmat cleanup costs.

• Spill cleanup timeline- IDEM work with INDOT to establish a reasonable timeline policy for follow-up digs

• Recovery Time Limits- work to establish Recovery Time Limits so recovery times are reduced

Training needs

High Priority

• Reconstructionist- ISP to look at Photogrammetry and Scene Management

• Traffic Routing- ISP initiate and provide training to all LE on safe routing of traffic through or around a traffic incident

  • Policy development through ISP with free training to all LE to include work zone and maintenance incidents

Training needs

Medium Priority

• ISP- gear all photo training to the area of photogrammetry

• Safety in work zones- INDOT to work with contractor policies (enforce accurate signage to indicate whether work is in progress or not)

• INDOT- provide work zone training for LE

Equipment needs

High Priority

Crash Investigation-Photogrammetry- ISP coordinate purchase and training for ISP and possibly for all Indiana LE agencies

Accomplishments

• Fender Bender signs- INDOT has erected 50 “Move Vehicles to Shoulder” signs in the greater Indianapolis area

• Superloads- ISP/DOR/ INDOT currently meeting to evaluate current procedures and make needed changes

• Increased responder awareness- Hoosier Helpers making calls to IDEM on spills

• Photogrammetry- ISP is using this technology and investigating further use and training

  • ISP and INDOT are negotiating funding for additional purchase of photogrammetry equipment

Accomplishments

• Facilitated 3 after action reports on fatal crashes

• As of 8-1-08 Indiana has 106 fewer fatalities than this time last year!!!

• QC Workgroup has gained much cross discipline knowledge

• Signage- INDOT has purchased 25 “Emergency Scene Ahead” signs for the Indianapolis and Gary TMC’s

Accomplishments

• Created the Indiana Quick Clearance Website at:
  www.indianaquickclearance.org/

• Better working relationships between agencies already!

Stakeholder Representation

• Indiana State Police (ISP)

• Indiana Department of Transportation (InDOT)

• Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)

• Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA)

• Indiana Motor Truck Association (IMTA)

• Towing Associations

• Spill Cleanup Industry

• Indiana Department of Homeland Security (IDHS)

• Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM)

• Fire Fighter’s Association

• Sheriff’s Association

• Chief of Police Association

• Criminal Justice Institute (ICJI)

• Department of Revenue, Motor Carrier Services (DOR/MCS)

• Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO)

• Department of Health

• Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV)