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TOWING & RECOVERY December 2011 Keeping industry pros on their tows FOOTNOTES 3 ® AD Partn tow ers Se VI e P S ag O e 1 R www.trfootnotes.com Announcing Our NEW Website! Stay on your tows at: www.trfootnotes.com Featuring: > Classified Ads > The TowBlog > Useful Directories > Past Issues > Helpful Articles > Shows & Demos > Subscriptions And more to come… SPOTLIGHT Business Management Advertising Advertise Now! Call David Abraham 877-219-7734, Ext 1 Volume 22, Number 8 x $3.95 © 2011 Causey Enterprises, LLC. All Rights Reserved. In The Towing For January: KC Scout’s IM Coordinator Rusty James Smooth Operators KC Scout is creating a new national standard for communication between on-scene responders tractor-trailer wrecks. The program is being watched nationwide by federal and state agencies because it is getting results never seen before. KC Scout is a cooperative between the Kansas and Missouri Departments of Transportation and is designed to lessen traffic congestion along 125 miles of interstate freeways. It unites the resources of city, state, and fed-eral government agencies and private businesses to identify respond and clear incidents as quickly and safely as possible. The KC Scout system coordinates efforts across state lines and includes more than 25 city and county jurisdic-tions, which equates to more than 40 police departments, 20 fire departments or districts, and a lot of independently owned towing companies in Kansas and Missouri. BY ANDREA EVANS Since July 2009, there has been a 44-percent reduction in traffic incident-related congestion in the Kansas City (KC) metro area. This amazing success story is attributable to “KC Scout,” Kansas City’s incident management system. The KC Scout program has trimmed more than two hours off clearance times for major incidents involving fatalities, crime scenes, and PRST STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID PEORIA, IL PERMIT NO. 315 For February: Towing & Recovery Footnotes P .O. Box 64397 Virginia Beach, VA 23467 ® Towers Vital KC Scout is designed to lessen traffic jams by improving rush-hour speeds, increase safety by decreasing rush-hour incidents, and to improve emer-gency response to traffic situations. Towing companies, of course, play a vital part in this program. Rusty James, incident management coordinator for KC Scout said, “They’ve [the towers] grasped the relationship between increased safety for responders and motorists and opening traffic lanes as soon as possible. They took a chance and were willing to do things different than in the past. ” Scout’s on-scene incident manage-ment methods often vary dramatically from traditional towing practices. For example, if a tractor-trailer has rolled on its side and is blocking several lanes of traffic, and law enforcement has completed its accident investigation, the officer may ask towing operators to drag the tractor-trailer to the side of the highway or another safe location and complete the recovery there. Bill Johnson, a traffic investigator for the Kansas City police, said, “Bringing See SMOOTH OPERATORS, page 3

Smooth Operators

ANDREA EVANS

KC Scout is creating a new national standard for communication between on-scene responders Since July 2009, there has been a 44-percent reduction in traffic incident-related congestion in the Kansas City (KC) metro area. This amazing success story is attributable to “KC Scout,” Kansas City’s incident management system. The KC Scout program has trimmed more than two hours off clearance times for major incidents involving fatalities, crime scenes, and tractor-trailer wrecks. The program is being watched nationwide by federal and state agencies because it is getting results never seen before. KC Scout is a cooperative between the Kansas and Missouri Departments of Transportation and is designed to lessen traffic congestion along 125 miles of interstate freeways. It unites the resources of city, state, and federal government agencies and private businesses to identify respond and clear incidents as quickly and safely as possible. The KC Scout system coordinates efforts across state lines and includes more than 25 city and county jurisdictions, which equates to more than 40 police departments, 20 fire departments or districts, and a lot of independently owned towing companies in Kansas and Missouri. Towers Vital KC Scout is designed to lessen traffic jams by improving rush-hour speeds, increase safety by decreasing rush-hour incidents, and to improve emergency response to traffic situations. Towing companies, of course, play a vital part in this program. Rusty James, incident management coordinator for KC Scout said, “They’ve [the towers] grasped the relationship between increased safety for responders and motorists and opening traffic lanes as soon as possible. They took a chance and were willing to do things different than in the past. ” Scout’s on-scene incident management methods often vary dramatically from traditional towing practices. For example, if a tractor-trailer has rolled on its side and is blocking several lanes of traffic, and law enforcement has completed its accident investigation, the officer may ask towing operators to drag the tractor-trailer to the side of the highway or another safe location and complete the recovery there. Bill Johnson, a traffic investigator for the Kansas City police, said, “Bringing all the pieces [responders] together not only smoothes operations, it allows us to accomplish a lot that years ago people would have said no way and no way we’d ever get the results we are seeing in Kansas City.” Faster & Fewer “Working with Scout, we [towers] are opening roads with faster methods and less back ups,” said Mike Scott of Scotty’s Carriage Works in Cameron, Missouri. “I give Rusty accolades for his responsibility in initiating this cooperative program with all the responders,” said Bruce Pollock of Lazer Tow in Kansas City, Missouri. In all meetings and training sessions, Rusty, as program coordinator, has included all responder disciplines: towing and recovery, law enforcement, fire, and rescue. “He’s been up front and tried to be as neutral as possible with all parties involved,” added Pollock. Success in incident management depends on all responders communicating their needs and reasons for those needs. In KC Scout meetings, participants discuss accident investigation processes, fire and tow truck apparatus, operations, and EMS personnel concerns and vehicle requirements. “Discussing these things opens the eyes of each one of these disciplines, [as in] ‘I never thought about what they needed; they never thought about what I needed,’” said Mike Scott. “From there we can figure out what we need and plan what we can all do differently.” “Having an incident plan when you go to a scene on the highway is a whole lot better than trying to develop a plan in the middle of a mess on I-70,” said Rusty James. “You can have all this good equipment – the nicest, newest toys on our side [DOT], police, fire, and towers – but if we can’t communicate back and forth that equipment is not of much use. Getting Along Getting that back-and- forth communication going between the diverse disciplines took concentrated time and effort. Towers found it to be a difficult task at first. According to Bruce Pollock, “It was a hard uphill battle. To begin with, towers weren’t that accepted. Some of the police and fire departments didn’t get along that great either. Since then, I’ve noticed in meetings and on the street there is a lot more camaraderie. Everybody is working together a lot better.” In those initial meetings, said Rusty James, “police, fire, rescue, DOT, towers — we were all outside our comfort zones. There were 70 people there going to sit at a table and discuss things that normally didn’t get discussed. More than anything in that first meeting, people were talking to each other that would never have had a conversation otherwise.” Officer Bill Johnson said, “I remember when towers and other responders started coming to meetings; firemen all sat together, towers all together, police sat together, and same for EMS and highway people. Now it’s different. For instance, the last meeting I went to, I sat with two guys from fire departments and three guys from towing companies.” “Multi-discipline meetings help others understand the capabilities of the towing industry, how its evolved and can be better utilized, as well as problems we encounter in doing the job on-scene,” said Mike Scott. Much Safer The open communication goes beyond involvement in incident management meetings. James attends Kansas and Missouri towing association meetings as well as those of the Midwest Trucking Association. He said, “Including people in my position or with police and fire to discuss issues, to make presentations, or ask questions had really not been done in the past.” According to Mike Scott, “Rusty gives out his cell number. His coming to association meetings makes towers more willing to talk in person or by phone when they have a legitimate problem. The door is open to communicate in both directions.” Two-way communication fosters cooperation and respect that equates to greater safety. All emergency responders understand that the longer personnel are in the roadway, the greater the chances they will get hurt or create secondary crashes. Bruce Pollack said, “There’s a level of respect and camaraderie with other responders on the scene. They know you, like you and trust you. Number one, it’s much safer for all involved, including the general public.” “We’ve all found there is more than one way to approach any situation. It’s been great. I’m amazed by the success we’ve had,” said Officer Bill Johnson. “The key to our success is the willingness of all participants to break down barriers of the past. That’s been huge for us [law enforcement],” and, clearly, for all responders involved in the KC Scout program and for the safety of the motoring public.

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