The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT), in partnership with the Illinois Center for Transportation and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, is introducing the Traffic Incident Management Training Program.
“The online program is designed for emergency responders, including transportation workers, police, fire and towing and recovery crews,” said Ryan Fries, associate professor and graduate program director in the Department of Civil Engineering within SIUE’s School of Engineering. “We have spent the past five years accumulating the research to make this program come to life and be highly effective.”
The online course is offered for all disciplines involved in incident management, and provides responders with information to improve their safety at incident scenes.
“The better trained emergency responders are when arriving to an incident scene, the better the outcome for everyone,” said Illinois Transportation Secretary Ann L. Schneider. “It is very important to us to provide an easy, convenient training option for emergency responders to help ensure safety for all traveling on Illinois roadways.”
The program includes the new online course and a multi-agency in-class session. The online training includes 11 modules, each lasting between 15 and 30 minutes, to allow responders to view a whole module in one sitting.
Each module is narrated by an expert in the field and includes a wide variety of perspectives. The in-class session runs a half-day, and is equivalent to the National Traffic Incident Management Training (TIM) offered by the Federal Highway Administration, but focuses on laws and responders in Illinois.
In addition to improving safety at incident sites, the trainings are expected to improve communication, coordination and cooperation between all emergency responders throughout the state.
To register online for the training, visit http://www.ildottraining.org/ and include “TIM” next to your first name. For more information about the TIM Training Program, contact Geno Koehler at (217) 782-7328.
Photo: Ryan Fries, associate professor and graduate program director in the SIUE Department of Civil Engineering.