ROADWAY INCIDENT MANAGEMANT AND SAFETY STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT OF CHANGE

Several firefighters and Emergency Medical Service (EMS) workers are killed and many are injured each year by vehicles striking them while performing emergency functions at roadway incidents. The main problem is that in some departments, formal training and procedures do not exist for establishing warning devices and managing vehicle traffic as it approaches the incident scene. The purpose of this research is to review literature available on roadway safety, survey fire departments for current procedures, and develop a training lesson plan. This research project used both evaluative and action research to answer the following questions: Is there a universal way to establish a roadway incident scene? What safety procedures by members must be reinforced? What are the guidelines for setting out cones and flares? What other warning devices are being used by fire departments? The procedures to collect data included a literature review and a survey instrument. The survey was used to determine if the departments were (1) following a written Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) or had developed lesson plans on roadway safety