Third Senior Executive Transportation and Public Safety Summit: Final Report
11. National Traffic Incident Response Awareness Week Commemoration
To commemorate National Traffic Incident Response Awareness Week (NTIRAW) and conclude the summit, participants gathered outdoors amidst the backdrop of response vehicles and equipment. Present were representatives and equipment from the District of Columbia's Transportation, Fire, and Metropolitan Police Departments; the Maryland Department of Transportation (DOT) Coordinated Highways Action Response Team (CHART) Patrol; Maryland State Police; Virginia DOT; Virginia State Police; and Henry's Wrecker Service.
Martin C. Knopp, Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Associate Administrator for Operations, commenced the NTIRAW event thanking the responder communities present and the responder communities throughout the Nation that work tirelessly and risk their lives, to keep traveler safe. Associate Administrator Knopp reiterated U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao's emphasis on safety and Federal Highway Administrator Nicole R. Nason's connection with responder communities and her focus on responder safety. Mr. Knopp introduced Robert Bemis, Retired State Police Sergeant with the Pennsylvania State Police and retired Marine, and invited him to share his responder struck-by story.
Figure 28. Photos. Martin Knopp and Robert Bemis at the National Traffic Incident Response Awareness Week Commemoration.
Source: Federal Highway Administration.
Sergeant Bemis expressed honor "sharing this day among the titans of responder safety, whether in the field or the conference room." He spoke about spinal injuries, loss of eyesight, days of hospitalization, months of therapy, and years of adjustment from being struck while responding to an incident, to now advocating for and delivering responder training. He emphasized that his story of loss is played out across our Nation every day and reiterated that TIM training principles, such as proper scene set up and quick clearance, should be given equal importance to other training for incident responders.
Figure 29. Photo. National Traffic Incident Response Awareness Week Commemoration closes the summit.
Source: Federal Highway Administration
In closing, Associate Administrator Knopp thanked individuals that helped plan the summit and every participant for making time to make TIM a priority. He invited every individual present to sign the NTIRAW proclamation, which affirms that all signees are committed to:
- Promoting public education and outreach on Move Over Laws.
- Responder and motorist safety.
- Reducing responder struck-by fatalities and injuries.
- Clearing traffic incidents as quickly as possible.
- Promoting the collection of crash data.
- Reducing secondary crashes.
- Improving communications interoperability.
- Training over 1 million traffic incident responders.
- Reducing the time freight and travelers spend in incident backups.
The Proclamation resolves that all signees will continue efforts to jointly improve the safety of America's road system, and of those who knowingly put themselves in harm's way to respond to emergency conditions.
Figure 30. Photo. National Traffic Incident Response Awareness Week Proclamation.
Source: Federal Highway Administration
Figure 31. Photos. National Traffic Incident Response Awareness Week Commemoration and Proclamation signing.
Source: Federal Highway Administration
