7 October 2011, 12:37 pm

Traffic accidents place incident responders such as law enforcement, fire and rescue, and tow operators in danger every day. Huaguo Zhou and Ryan Fries, assistant professors of civil engineering in the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville School of Engineering, have developed a Highway Incident Management Operational and Training Guide designed to improve responder safety by creating a training that details the roles of all agencies.

With 14 training sessions scheduled by the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT), the researchers were pleased to learn that the Transportation Research Board (TRB) published the innovative final report from this research in its weekly newsletter.

“The TRB’s inclusion of Drs. Zhou and Fries’ project report in the weekly newsletter highlights the excellence of their research,” said Susan Morgan, professor of civil engineering and chair of the that department. “It also provides others with the opportunity to use what they have developed to improve highway safety throughout the United States.”

After receiving positive feedback from pilot tests conducted in Chicago and St. Louis, the researchers released the manual to IDOT. A copy also has been sent to the National Fire and Police Academy to be considered for national accreditation. Zhou believes the report will become a key reference for many agencies in the future.