National Crash Responder Safety Week is November 18 –22, 2024, and the Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT) is urging drivers to slow down, move over, and pay attention near traffic incidents. The Crash Responder Safety Week 2024 theme is, “Responders Ahead! Reduce Your Speed as You Proceed,” emphasizing drivers’ role in keeping incident responders safe.
Annually in Connecticut, there are more than 100,000 motor vehicle crashes where responders work close to oncoming traffic. Incident responders put their lives in danger whenever they respond to a crash. Since 2020, more than 160 incident responders in the U.S. have been killed in the line of duty due to a secondary crash happening on the roadway, according to the Federal Highway Administration's last year of verifiable data.
CTDOT works daily with its partners, including law enforcement, firefighters, emergency medical services, towing and recovery, public works, and safety service patrols. Collectively, traffic incident responders work to assist road users in need, applying well-trained procedures to provide emergency traffic control and quickly clear incidents from roadways.
“This week is an important reminder of the sacrifices made by crash responders on our roadways,” said Connecticut Department of Transportation Commissioner Eucalitto. “We urge the public to spread the word about the importance of drivers moving over when they see flashing lights along the roadway shoulder.”
“We need the public’s partnership in keeping incident responders safe as they do their jobs,” said Connecticut Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection Commissioner Ronnell Higgins. “As we head into a season where we celebrate family and togetherness, I urge all drivers to slow down and move over to avoid the preventable loss of lives. We pledge to do our work to keep you and your families safe, please help us by doing your part.”
During National Crash Responder Safety Week, CTDOT is highlighting the state’s Move Over law. Connecticut’s Move Over law requires all drivers on a highway of two lanes or more in one direction to slow down to a reasonable level below the speed limit and, if safe to do so, move over one lane not only for emergency responders, and tow drivers, but for any vehicle along the side of the road.
If a driver is cannot move over a lane, they are required to slow down and proceed with caution. In Connecticut, the original law took effect in 2009 to reduce risk to law-enforcement officers, emergency responders, and tow operators. It was expanded in 2017 to apply to every stationary vehicle along the roadside.
To help keep roadside responders safe, CTDOT offers free Traffic Incident Management (TIM) training. The TIM training brings together all incident responders to ensure safe and quick clearance of a crash scene. The training focuses on safety in responding to roadway incidents and standardizes incident management protocols for all responders. Since 2021, CTDOT has provided training sessions to 5,670 first responders in Connecticut. Additional free training sessions are planned for 2025.