Operational Strengths
Overall there is a good level of understanding between responders, particularly police agencies for emergency and safety requirements and the road and traffic agencies for traffic management and clearance.
Most cities have dedicated incident response services, although they have limited coverage of the high traffic network due to resourcing constraints. Incident response crews, for example used in Brisbane, Sydney, Perth, undertake initial response and access further equipment and materials from depots or call up salvage or towing contractors as required. Road maintenance crews or contractors are generally used for major incidents.In some cities, as part of inter-agency agreements, the responsibility for site and traffic management have been clearly delineated, with the police agency being responsible for the inner cordon immediately around an incident and the road and traffic agency being responsible for the outer cordon, controlling traffic and providing information on traffic conditions, but still under the overall control of the incident commander (police).
There are generally well-established procedures for fatal crash investigation by Police and hazardous material response.
Pre-qualified lists of towing and salvage operators are generally available for clearance of incidents, however there are often issues obtaining suitable heavy towing or specialist clearance equipment, due to limited availability of these units.
Operational Challenges
Agencies generally have established criteria for major incidents – but these are not agreed across all responder agencies, making rapid, appropriate responses difficult.
Staging of vehicles at incident scenes is a challenge in all jurisdictions as there is still a tendency to unnecessarily block lanes by emergency services (fire and rescue particularly), primarily for responder safety. Limited training and understanding of positive traffic control by emergency services personnel may contribute to this problem.
Only some jurisdictions have established quick clearance policies, while most have yet to proceed with quick clearance due to legal and liability concerns.
Greater emphasis on incident management is needed in traffic management for roadworks.
Long response times by road maintenance operators and contractors needs to be addressed by either resourcing improved service levels or providing alternative response resources.
Program and institutional issues (strategy and programs, resourcing, performance measurement, institutional arrangements) was covered in Part 1. Part 3 will cover communication and technology issues (integrated inter-agency communications, transport management systems and traveller information).
Download Austroads Report AP-297/07 Review of Current Traffic Incident Management Practices.
