Crews seek safety
CRANBERRY TWP — Managing traffic after a vehicle accident can be a tricky balance of keeping first responders safe while allowing traffic to keep moving, but practice makes perfect.
That's why Cranberry emergency services recently created a simulated road at its public safety training campus behind the public works building. Emergency responders can now practice how to respond to and control an accident scene before responding to the real thing.
On Wednesday night, members of the regional traffic incident management team, or TIM team, met with others from PennTIME, the state's traffic incident management group, to check out Cranberry's facility and talk about safety and issues with traffic incident management.
“This has given us a lot of opportunities to do a lot of neat training,” said Sgt. Bill Ahlgren of Cranberry Township police.
Cranberry first responders are members of the Interstate 76/Interstate 79 regional TIM team. Members include the township police department, local fire departments, EMS, tow truck companies, AAA and the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
The simulated road in Cranberry was developed as part of the township's participation with PennTIME.
Todd Leiss, traffic incident management coordinator for the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, said the Federal Highway Administration recently approached the commission about building a traffic incident management training facility.
The administration helped fund a similar facility in Tennessee, the first one in the country.
Ahlgren said after Cranberry representatives went to a summit with PennTIME and heard about the Tennessee facility, they started thinking about what they could do with the facilities they already have. As it turned out, the measurements fit perfectly to create a simulated Route 228/Route 19 intersection and a section of Route 19 around the public safety training campus.
Before this the TIM team would run through simulations using Matchbox cars on a table, Leiss said.
“Something like this benefits emergency responders to practice training and to possibly open it up to the public to help them understand what they need to do in an emergency,” Leiss said.
Cranberry and surrounding communities will be able to use the facility for training.
For the showcase Wednesday night, Ahlgren set up a mock crash at the center of the simulated intersection.
First responders were asked to park their vehicles and apparatus where they would if they were responding to the scene. The goal is to place vehicles to warn motorists early and create a safety zone for responders to work while allowing traffic to continue moving.
Then Ahlgren walked through it with them to “look at how we could have controlled traffic better but also be safe.”
Steer Clear Law
One issue that came up as they walked through the scene is motorists failing to move over or slow down in accordance with the Steer Clear Law.
The Steer Clear Law requires drivers to move over when they encounter an emergency scene, traffic stop or disabled vehicles. If there is not room to move over to an unoccupied lane, drivers should move over as much as they can in their lane and slow down significantly, Ahlgren said.
State police Trooper Dan Hines said he stops people frequently who say they did not know that it was a law to move over for emergency vehicles. Hines said he has zero tolerance for a person who does not move over as he knows two troopers who were severely injured by a passing motorist that did not move over.
“I bring that up on traffic stops,” Hines said. “It's because of two of my friends who will never be the same again.
