Highways Agency

• Traffic Incident Management Bulletin

October 2007

During any incident the flow of information must be carefully controlled to ensure that key organisations have accurate, current information. Using Situation Reports (SitReps) this can be achieved quickly and conveniently. This article explains the benefits and gives a few pointers to the successful use of SitReps.

What is a SitRep for?

The whole point of a SitRep is to make sure that everyone involved in the management of an incident is aware of the current situation. A SitRep provides a concise, factual and up to date snap shot of the situation at a point in time. The production of a SitRep is a useful exercise in itself as it requires someone to stop and collate information. This means that if something is starting to go awry it can be identified early and managed.

As well as giving an accurate, timely, brief account of the progress of the incident, a SitRep also serves to provide the basic information for briefing senior managers and incoming or fresh crews being deployed to the incident or the surrounding area. It is therefore crucial for the content to be factual and accurate.

A huge advantage is that once issued a SitRep should stop the endless individuals who contact the incident managers unnecessarily for an update. This will create more time for the incident managers to do exactly as their title suggests. This includes the press officers who will be kept up to date and able to provide information to the media and ultimately those incurring delays. Again this lifts a pressure from the incident managers as they no longer have to worry about media liaison.

Finally it can prove very useful during an incident debrief as it does provide a historical record of what the situation was at regular intervals throughout the incident.

What makes a good SitRep?

A good SitRep is concise, easy to understand and in plain English. It should contain only accurate, factual information otherwise the credibility is lost and people will start to contact the incident management team to try to get more information (taking up your time!!).

They must be provided at regular time intervals and whenever the situation changes significantly. The recipients need to know that they will receive regular information so they can then rely on it when carrying out their functions.

Think about the target audience you are providing for. There will be a mixture of people who all have slightly different needs. The media liaison is more concerned with clearance times and an overview of the situation whilst the engineers are more concerned with details of any infrastructure damage. There are some questions to ask yourself when compiling the report which may help to produce a good SitRep:

• Is the audience aware of the terminology I am using?
• Does everyone understand the acronyms used?
• Is there anything ambiguous in the report?
• Does this provide all the information required?
• Is there any information which needs to be treated sensitively?

It can be useful to use a recognised mnemonic, such as CHALETS:

Chalet mnemonic

This can then serve to provide a consistent framework for Sit Reps.

Clearly, there will be a need to explain other parts of the incident and what is happening and this should always be undertaken utilising the ABC of communications –

• Accurate,
• Brief,
• Clear,

avoiding any ambiguous phrases or language, stressing clearly points of danger, and health, safety and welfare requirements.  

Finally consider stating when the next SitRep is likely to be produced and of course make sure there is a complete record of the SitRep and it is noted on the incident log. The Highways Agency National Incident Liaison Officer (NILO) uses information from the Regional Control Centres to produce reports which are subsequently disseminated widely. The NILO report example (18KB PDF) provides an idea of the information they supply to the various stakeholders.

Has this article been worthwhile reading? Why not take a moment to send us your comments, thoughts or questions. Please e-mail TIMbulletin@highways.gsi.gov.uk.