Leadership Lessons: Get to Know Traffic Incident Management

Working on a roadway is dangerous—really dangerous. As with any other dangerous situation, there are strategies, tactics and tools that can help you operate more efficiently and, ultimately, safely (win-win). But there’s one friendly tool that is particularly useful.

Question: How well do you and your friend TIM get along? Do you take your friend with you when you operate on a busy road, highway or interstate? You do have a friend named TIM, right? If you don’t, please allow me to introduce you to my friend and soon to be yours, too, Traffic Incident Management (TIM). 

TIM understands that you have a job to do, and that job means you need to respond a certain way, work a certain way, park a certain way, and is as serious about your safety and welfare as you are. However, as much as TIM cares about you doing your job your way, he also knows that, just like at a party, you should not stay in any one situation too long. Hey, we all love parties, but staying too long is not always a great idea. Working on a highway system is no different: You get the invite, you head toward the party, fighting traffic to get there, you look for a close parking spot because you don’t want to lug your stuff too far, you do your thing, but then, sometimes, you stay longer than you should. Think of it this way, there is nothing wrong with staying until the end of the party, but as the party winds down and the crowd thins out, do you stay in the larger room or do you move the party to a smaller room, or perhaps even to an entirely new location? This is where our friend TIM comes into play. TIM is there to remind us that the party is changing, and we need to change our party-going tactics, too.

What I’m getting at here is quite simple: Go to the party and do your thing, but as the party changes or winds down, be willing to adjust. For example, if you need to block most the road when you first get there, OK, no issue. But as things wind down and there is less reason to keep the road blocked, move your truck and open up some of the road.

For you safety-rangers out there, I am not saying to compromise your safety, not even close. Your buddy TIM will tell you to take what you need to maintain a safe working area but be willing to consider the larger picture and give that space back as soon as you don’t need it. In other words, if the job is done and a car can be moved to the shoulder, do you really need the whole road shut down? 

Why listen to TIM? Because TIM is a smart friend, and he makes sense. Working on the highway is dangerous, so anything you can do to work safely and efficiently is also smart. For all of you who are stomping your feet and saying, “This is why we just close down the damn road!” Fair enough. However, TIM will tell you that you have solved your problem, and you now potentially shifted it somewhere else. “What B.S.!” you may be saying, but not so fast, my friend (inner Lee Corso coming out). When you shut down the road, another accident will likely occur somewhere else, and now your friends from another firehouse need to go to that and deal with the hazards associated with that incident, an incident that you may have helped create. Could you live with yourself, knowing that you stayed at the party too long and, in doing so, caused someone else to get hurt? 

If you don’t have a friend named TIM, make a new friend. If you have met TIM, but he is now a distant friend, reach out and get back in touch. He would be happy to hear from you. If TIM is your buddy and you hang out a lot, great, don’t screw up that friendship. As leaders, it is incumbent upon us to make the people on our team associate and hangout with good friends. Be a good leader and make sure your team makes friends with TIM.

If you want to learn more about making a new friend, check out the National Traffic Incident Management Responder Training web-based training at tinyurl.com/TIM-incident-training. Stay safe!