Why Traffic Incident Management Training and Below 100 Go Hand in Hand

Robert Mota
Retired Captain
California Highway Patrol

Every year, law enforcement officers across the United States are struck and killed on the side of the road — not in foot pursuits, not in firefights, but while working traffic incidents. The statistics are sobering. Secondary crashes at incident scenes kill hundreds of people annually, and officers working those scenes face a disproportionate risk of being struck by passing vehicles. Traffic Incident Management (TIM) training, developed under the Federal Highway Administration’s SHRP2 program, exists precisely to change that equation.

TIM is a nationally coordinated, multidisciplinary approach that brings law enforcement, fire, EMS, transportation agencies, tow operators, departments of public works, dispatchers, coroners and others together under a common framework for detecting, responding to and clearing traffic incidents as safely and efficiently as possible. It is not a theoretical exercise; it is a practical, field-tested curriculum built around the reality that roadside environments are dynamic and dangerous, and that every responder’s behavior directly affects outcomes.

The Danger Is Real

According to the Federal Highway Administration, approximately six million vehicle crashes occur in the U.S. annually. A significant percentage of resulting fatalities and injuries stem not from initial collisions, but from secondary crashes — vehicles striking first responders and motorists as a result of traffic backups. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) data consistently places traffic-related incidents among the top causes of line-of-duty deaths for law enforcement officers nationwide.

What makes this especially urgent is that many of these deaths are preventable. Scene positioning, traffic control and the speed at which responders achieve safe, quick clearance all directly influence whether an officer — or any responder — goes home. TIM provides a structured, evidence-based framework for managing those variables effectively.

Every minute a lane stays blocked is another minute of elevated risk — for officers, for responders and for the traveling public.

What TIM Training Covers

The SHRP2 TIM curriculum addresses scene size-up and vehicle positioning, use of traffic control devices, interagency communication protocols and the critical concept of safe, quick clearance. Officers learn to recognize the difference between a protected and an exposed position, how to coordinate effectively with allied agencies
and tow operators, and how to apply the “move-it” philosophy when a vehicle can be safely relocated from a travel lane.

One of the most practical concepts in TIM is Lane +1. The principle is straightforward: law enforcement and fire should think about traffic management not just at the point of impact, but upstream — keeping one lane beyond the incident lane clear and protecting the entire corridor where personnel are operating. For fire, apparatus placement is itself a traffic control decision: a large engine or truck positioned correctly upstream becomes the most visible and effective buffer between moving vehicles and working responders. When applied consistently across disciplines, Lane +1 significantly reduces the exposure window for every responder on scene — including tow operators, public works personnel and freeway service patrol operators, each of whom has a defined role in the clearance timeline that TIM makes explicit.

A key feature of the training is its use of real after-action incidents — reviewing what worked well and how outcomes could have been improved. This grounds the curriculum in operational reality rather than classroom abstraction. Quarterly coalition meetings, where representatives from law enforcement, fire, DOT, dispatchers and others debrief real incidents together, extend that learning loop into the field. That kind of cross-discipline dialogue is uncommon, and it meaningfully changes how responders approach scene management.

The Below 100 Connection

TIM training aligns naturally with the principles of the Below 100 officer safety initiative, which aims to reduce line-of-duty deaths to fewer than 100 per year through five behavioral tenets: wear your belt, wear your vest, watch your speed, WIN (What’s Important Now) and remember — complacency kills.

The overlap is both practical and philosophical. Correct vehicle positioning, proper warning light activation and awareness of traffic flow are the physical expressions of Below 100’s anti-complacency message applied to roadside environments. Both frameworks challenge the dangerous assumption that because something has gone fine before, it will go fine again.

WIN — What’s Important Now — may be the most direct point of alignment. TIM teaches officers to continuously reassess the scene as conditions evolve: traffic flow, deteriorating weather and developing secondary hazards. That dynamic situational awareness is at the heart of the Below 100 framework. Complacency on a roadway scene is not merely a bad habit; it is a mechanism by which officers are killed.

A Regional and National Picture

TIM training is active across the country, with state DOTs and others delivering SHRP2 courses to first responders in every region. In Nevada, Utah and Wyoming, TIM courses are taught on behalf of each state’s department of transportation, bringing law enforcement officers into the same room as fire, EMS and transportation professionals.

For departments that have not yet incorporated TIM into their officer safety curriculum, the barrier to entry is low. The SHRP2 course is designed to be delivered in a single day. The return — measured in officer lives protected and crashes prevented — is substantial.

The roadside is one of the most dangerous environments a law enforcement officer will regularly encounter. TIM training is one of the most direct investments a department can make in changing that reality.

About the Author

PORAC member Robert Mota is a retired captain with the California Highway Patrol and currently works with Parsons as a certified instructor for the National Highway Administration’s Traffic Incident Management (SHRP2) program. He delivers TIM training in Nevada, Utah and Wyoming on behalf of their respective departments of transportation, and coordinates quarterly multiagency coalition meetings focused on emerging trends and after-action incident review. He is a recognized advocate for multidisciplinary collaboration as the foundation of roadside responder safety. For more information about TIM, go to https://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/tim/index.htm, or contact Robert at robert.mota@parsons.com. To learn more about Below 100, go to below100.org.