Traffic Incident Management Program
photos of traffic blocked by cones (Photo by Dave Gatley/FEMA News Photo), fire emergency workers, police officers, tow truck removing car from accident scene, and ambulance
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Formal Memoranda of Understanding and High-Level Operations Policy Agreements

The various agencies participating in a program to effectively manage traffic incidents all have different agency goals, perspectives, responsibilities, priorities, and operating cultures that can cause misunderstandings, disagreements, delays, and inefficiencies in effectively resolving a traffic incident. Establishing formal agreements and memoranda of understanding covering issues where these difficulties arise can greatly facilitate on-scene operations. Such agreements might cover subjects like incident command structure, equipment staging, traffic control, hazardous materials incident issues and procedures, crash investigation procedures, quick clearance procedures, and many other issues. Interagency agreements can also set performance goals such as response time or incident clearance time.

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