The nation’s cadre of emergency responders trained in techniques to clear roadway incidents safely and quickly continues to grow. Alaska more than tripled the number of responders knowledgeable about traffic incident management best practices through a series of six training sessions in January. The state’s more than 140 trained responders include tow operators, law enforcement personnel, firefighters and emergency medical services workers. Alaska is poised to meet its goal of training 10 percent of the state’s responders in traffic incident management techniques by May 2015.

In Nebraska, nearly 2,200 first responders have been trained in traffic incident management best practices since June 2014. In January, 500 responders were trained in 18 classes held across the state. Interest in the classes was spurred by a Highway Safety Improvement Program project to provide traffic control device packages to volunteer fire departments that participate in the training.