Better information for your journey
The National Traffic Control Centre collects real-time information on road conditions.
The Project Control Framework
On 1st April 2008 we launched the Project Control Framework. The Framework sets out how we, together with the Department for Transport, manage and deliver major improvement projects.
Free Traffic Information Seminars
Helping your business get its customers, drivers and goods where they should be, on time and stress-free.
Capability Assessment Toolkit 3
Introducing new and challenging indicators in the area of corporate social responsibility.
Efficiency Gains from Collaborative Roads Procurement
Delivering efficiency and best value is central
Post-Incident Cold Debrief Process
The TIM Bulletin has been developed by the TIM Team to disseminate the lessons learnt and good practices gathered through the Highways Agency’s Post-Incident Cold Debrief Process.
Andy Butterfield, Project Lead for the Lessons Learnt programme in the Highways Agency’s TIM team, defines a cold debrief:
“It is a planned meeting which takes place a week to a month after a critical incident has occurred to review what happened during the incident. The incident responders, including the police, traffic officers, service providers, recovery contractors, area performance teams etc, that helped deal with the incident, are invited to attend the debrief. They are all then encouraged to share information to gain a better understanding of what did and didn’t go well during the incident.”
The aim is to improve our understanding of a situation so when the next incident occurs, we all have a better grasp of what to do and how to react.
At the end of the debrief the Chair should go through all the actions and agree who is going to take responsibility for them. People who aren’t present at the debrief may have actions so TIM has developed a register called the Traffic Operations Action Spreadsheets or TOAS for short!
These are held on the Highways Agency’s Intranet so that all area performance teams can gain access to them. It is their responsibility to ensure that the spreadsheets are completed after a debrief is held and that they are kept up-to-date as issues are resolved.
Issues that cannot be resolved at a local or regional level are passed on to the Traffic Operations TIM team to find the right solution for the problem.
It is through the TOAS that the TIM team become aware of recurring issues and can then initiate research projects such as the Timeline Review to look at ways of resolving them. The TIM Team also use the TOAS to identify good practices and it is through publications like the TIM Bulletin that we will disseminate those lessons learnt.
All of the organisations that attend incidents can request that a cold debrief is held, so if you think something worked better than usual or didn’t go as well as you felt it should have done, you can call a cold debrief into action. Simply contact the area performance team in the region where the incident occurred and they will make the necessary arrangements for a debrief to happen.
Important Note
Cold debriefs should take place after all major incidents and be considered for critical incidents, but as a rule of thumb would normally take place in the following circumstances:
- Where exceptional or significant damage has occurred to the asset
- Where road users have experienced exceptional or significant delay
- When multiple responders or stakeholders have been involved
- Where there was, or potentially could have been, a significant environmental impact
- Where there was a significant number of vehicles involved
