Third Senior Executive Transportation and Public Safety Summit: Final Report

2. Opening Remarks and Guest Speakers

The summit opened at the National Museum of the U.S. Navy with the Posting of the Colors by the Washington, DC Fire Honor Guard and the National Anthem sung by Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) staffer Adina Felton. Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Office of Operations Office of Transportation Operations Director Mark Kehrli welcomed participants to the summit. He also acknowledged the critical importance of traffic incident management (TIM) and the unique composition of the individuals present at the summit, ranging across the varied traffic incident management responder communities, leaders across 20+ national associations and organizations, and elected officials at the Federal, State, county, and city levels. Kehrli also welcomed U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) modal administrators—FHWA Administrator Nicole R. Nason, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Acting Administrator James Owen, and FMCSA Deputy Administrator Jim Mullen—to address summit attendees.

FHWA Administrator Nason cited the dramatic rise in responder deaths from 17 in the year 2018 to over 40 in the year 2019. She recognized the far greater unknown number of responders injured in ways that are life-changing and career-ending, noting "we can, and we must do better." Administrator Nason expressed FHWA's commitment to working with the safety community to alter this trend by supporting enhanced training and preparedness for first responders.

Administrator Nason explained that FHWA promotes the most safe and efficient removal of incidents and the National TIM Responder training because the longer responders remain on the scene, the higher the risk they face, and the greater the risk to the traveling public for a secondary crash. She shared how her father, a highway patrol officer, put his life on the line every day, responding to incidents. She also shared how a driver struck him as he was responding to an event, and that it was a near career-ending injury with a months-long recovery. Administrator Nason called for each of us to do our part to share TIM best practices, and to improve safe, quick road clearance.

NHTSA Acting Administrator James C. Owens spoke to their agency's efforts targeting responder communities, travelers, and auto manufacturers to save lives, prevent injuries, and reduce economic costs due to road traffic crashes. He noted that Move Over is the law in all 50 States and the District of Columbia, but that not enough drivers are aware of their existence, which is why NHTSA developed materials to educate drivers. Mr. Owens encouraged all communities to use these resources to help save lives.

Acting Administrator Owens also emphasized that an "appropriate and well-organized traffic incident management is a crucial practice for first responders, whether a traffic stop, a fender bender, or working a major crash scene." The NHTSA National Law Enforcement Liaison program and regional offices support National TIM First Responder Training. He offered to the summit participants, "If there is anything my agency, NHTSA, or I can do to help you, please don't hesitate to ask."

FMCSA Deputy Administrator Jim Mullen shared FMCSA's mission to prevent crashes involving large trucks and buses, and that it regulates 4.7 million holders of active commercial driver's licenses. He noted the collective efforts through regulation and education to improve safety and highlighted the "Our Road, Our Safety" campaign designed to raise awareness about sharing the road safely with large trucks and buses.

USDOT Secretary Elaine L. Chao thanked every participant for their commitment and contributions to improving safety for responders; and the TIM ELG for their wisdom, leadership, ideas, and ability to exert their influence to advance TIM. She shared that FHWA, NHTSA, and FMCSA are "committed to working together with our law enforcement, fire, EMS, towing, transportation, and public works partners, as well as State highway safety offices, to increase awareness of the Move Over laws,"until moving over for responders becomes second nature and a habit for all travelers.

Secretary Chao highlighted opportunities through FHWA Safety Data Initiative, which strives to evolve Department of Transportation (DOT) practices from retrospective to predictive through data integration, analysis, and visualization. She emphasized the importance of collecting TIM data, and especially secondary crash data, as specified in the Model Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria (MMUCC), the minimum dataset for describing motor vehicle crashes. She shared that safety is the first priority for USDOT and her role in the summit is to help amplify participants' voice and message.

The summit guest speaker, U.S. Representative John H. Rutherford (FL-4), former Sheriff for Duval County, shared the highway patrol transformation he championed to focus on high-frequency crash locations through education, enforcement, and engineering. He recounted the change in focus and practices, which began with communications among his office's Lieutenants and Sergeants. They shifted to bimonthly prioritized policing of the top 10 crash locations, starting with citations the first month and enforcement the second month. They also connected with transportation counterparts to improve signalization at high-frequency crash intersections.

Representative Rutherford noted that cultural change is never easy. And he applauded the push to diligently collect secondary crashes and responder struck-by information to better understand the conditions and factors that contribute to our law enforcement, tow operators, and rescue personnel being injured or killed while responding to incidents.