NTIMC STATEMENT
ON TRAFFIC INCIDENT MANAGEMENT (TIM)
MULTIDISCIPLINARY PROFESSIONAL SKILL DEVELOPMENT
The National Traffic Incident Management Coalition's (NTIMC's) National Unified Goal for Traffic Incident Management (the NUG) addresses the subject of multidisciplinary professional skill development in Strategy 2, as follows:
Strategy 2. Multidisciplinary NIMS and TIM Training.Traffic Incident Management responders should receive multidisciplinary National Incident Management System (NIMS) and Traffic Incident Management (TIM) training.
Explanation: Multidisciplinary training, including NIMS training, is a key mechanism for achieving the objectives of the National Unified Goal. National Traffic Incident Management stakeholders (NTIMC) will develop recommendations for multidisciplinary training curricula for traffic incident responders. The curricula will include both classroom and interactive training components. All traffic incident responders should be trained in NIMS. This will ensure that both government and private-sector Traffic Incident Management responders receive training in the Incident Command System (ICS) and in Unified Command (UC) procedures.
NTIMC established a Training Task Force for the purpose of developing the "recommendations for multidisciplinary training curricula for traffic incident responders." These recommendations define the core competencies necessary for Traffic Incident Responders to effectively carry out their respective missions at traffic incidents. Click here to view or download the Multidisciplinary Core Competencies.
The development of the core competency definition(s) was based upon the nationally recognized practices and procedures, which currently are under development by NTIMC partners and being coordinated through the joint work of the NUG Task Force on Practices and Procedures and the NUG Training Task Force. The NUG Task Forces are charged with implementation of NUG Strategy 10, as follows:
Strategy 10. Multidisciplinary TIM Procedures. Traffic Incident Management partners at the state, regional and local levels should develop and adopt multidisciplinary procedures for coordination of Traffic Incident Management operations, based on national recommended practices and procedures.
Explanation: To assist state and local Traffic Incident Management partners in agreeing on multidisciplinary procedures, National Traffic Incident Management stakeholders (working through the National Traffic Incident Management Coalition) will develop multidisciplinary recommended practice guidelines for:
a) clearance of vehicles and cargo on the roadways or shoulders, including liability protection for responding agencies and responders;
b) towing and recovery operations at incident scenes;
c) traffic control at incident scenes;
d)traffic incident investigations, including crash reconstructions;
e) clearance of incidents involving spills of environmentally regulated materials that do not require response by a HAZMAT team;
f) fire and emergency medical services operations at traffic incidents;
g) equipment and equipment operations for traffic incident management; and
h) service patrols.
Together, the
- National recommended practices and procedures, and
- Recommended core competencies
are intended to provide a common framework for responders from various disciplines to come together in State and local TIM partnerships in order to:
- Develop MOUs to document their own State and local agrees regarding multidisciplinary, multijurisdictional Traffic Incident Management practices and procedures; and to
- Conduct exercises to develop the core competencies necessary to implement the agreed-upon practices and procedures.
This common framework will not preclude individual disciplines from building out more detailed structures for TIM skill development within their own disciplines, as long as the training that each discipline receives builds their skills for functioning within that common framework.
