Highways Agency

• Traffic Incident Management Bulletin

February 2008

Multi-agency incident exercising is something that is becoming more and more frequent across the Highways Agency. It provides an opportunity to improve working practices and also identify any potential ‘learning gaps’.

This article features an event which has been recently conducted in the North West and highlights the key learning and good practice which has been identified from it.

Background

On the 6th February, a landmark multi-agency event called Exercise Valentine took place at Salmesbury airfield in Lancashire in the North West region.

The exercise marked the first time that the North West Traffic Officer Service had staged such an event with its partners which included:

• Lancashire Police
• North West Ambulance Service
• Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service
• Area 10 Service Provider, Aone+
• Recovery Agent - MacAdams

The exercise was organised principally by the region's Traffic Officer Service and was supported by the Traffic Learning Centre and the Traffic Incident Management team.

The incident took place at an airfield loaned by BAE Systems which was turned into a virtual motorway for the day to test the Highways Agency and emergency services’ responsiveness to a serious motorway incident.

To provide the exercise with a realistic edge, the organisers of the event used drama students from Southport College to act as drivers and accident victims to simulate the real-life scenario. Additionally, students from a Forensic Sciences course used the incident as part of their accident investigation coursework.

Some attendees were active participants in the exercise, while others were there to observe and learn from it in facilitated groups.

Incident Scenario

The scenario set-up was to test the multi-agency's responsiveness to the incident, this is demonstrated by the below timeline of events. Each incident ‘development’ is detailed beneath:

• A road traffic collision is reported to the North West Regional Control Centre (RCC) by passer-by/public by telephone
• RCC dispatches Traffic Officer vehicle
• Articulated large goods vehicle on its side and stationary across lanes 1, 2 and 3
• The existent tailback includes a coach with passengers and 20 passenger vehicles
• In addition, an LGV tanker is parked wholly on the hard shoulder approximately 100 metres further along the carriageway from the point of the LGV/passenger coach collision
• Secondary damaged passenger vehicles to the rear of the articulated LGV collision site
• At the LGV collision site there is one serious injury and several injuries which require the attendance of Police, Fire and Ambulance services
• The nature of the roadway obstruction requires specialist recovery

You can view a detailed overview of the incident set-up.

Learning Points

The exercise captured a number of areas of good practice and future development, where lessons can be learned.

Detailed below are a selection of learning points supplied by participants, observers and facilitators:

• The exercise provided an excellent opportunity for stakeholders to engage, work together and to increase understanding of each others roles.
  o In addition, incident responders were able to interact and build relationships between themselves outside of the usual flurry of incident management activity at scene.
• The exercise presented the opportunity for Area teams to view ‘live’ incident management. This enabled them to identify the functions each stakeholder performs out on the network and to be reminded of the bigger picture.
• Overwhelmingly, the importance of clear, regular and specific inter-agency communication was highlighted – it was acknowledged as being essential to the safe and effective resolution to the incident.
• Demonstration of the various services’ equipment and capabilities, this included:
  • Fire Service’s command vehicles, lifting equipment and extracting equipment
  • Highways Agency Incident Support Units
  • Extraction equipment
  • Recovery equipment
  • Police’s new collision investigation equipment - this enabled the Police to carry out their investigation whilst other stakeholders continued with their work at the incident scene.
• During the incident a multi-agency airwave channel was used and proved very useful. However this may pose limitations due to the sensitivity of Police information.
  • Some issues were also highlighted with regard to terminology and language used on the multi-agency channel - common understanding and agreed terminology needs to be developed.
• Better identification of who is the Incident Commander – there still appears to be lack of clarity around roles and responsibilities of each incident responder and how they interface. The exercise highlighted a need for further clarity and greater understanding of the capabilities that each responder brings to the incident.
• Traffic Officer observers found the event particularly useful as in real life they are so far away from an incident they do not see what their partner services are doing.
  • Through observation, they were able to achieve a clearer understanding of how much room recovery vehicles need and what factors are taken into collision investigation, as a result they are able to contain the scene in preparation for the arrival of the emergency services leading to a faster resolution to the incident.
• The necessity of the incident having a clear and consistent command structure was recognised as being paramount to the coordination of activities and efficient use of resources.
• The management of scene personnel could have been conducted better. The Incident Commander should be informed of what/who is entering and leaving the scene by the personnel controlling the closure.

STOP PRESS: The cold debrief from Exercise Valentine has recently been conducted. Lessons learnt from the exercise have been identified and shared between the incident responders present. The TIM Bulletin and Magazine will keep you updated with any key learning points that arise from it.

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.