The safety officer has a critical role in promoting and implementing recommended roadway incident response safety practices in training rotations and on scene. Fire departments make almost 3 ½ times as many runs to incidents on roadway properties as they do to structure fires¹, yet responder safety and traffic incident management typically do not receive the same attention in training and implementation as structure fire safety practices. To better protect all personnel, safety officers can:

• Step up to be advocates in their departments for compliance with applicable standards
• Initiate and participate in SOP/SOG writing for roadway incident responses
• Teach recommended traffic incident management and responder safety practices
• Purchase or advocate to purchase PPE and temporary traffic control devices to facilitate recommended practices
• Ensure these recommended practices are followed at roadway incident responses
• Facilitate After Action Reviews (AARs) following roadway incident responses
• Help develop materials to educate the public about Move Over laws

This program prepares safety officers to be these advocates in their departments by reviewing recommended traffic incident management and roadway incident safety practices with recommendations for how to implement them.

¹ https://www.nfpa.org/News-and-Research/Data-research-and-tools/Emergency-Responders/Fire-Department-Roadway-and-Vehicle-Incidents