The Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) announced in a press conference on Feb. 21, 2020, that after five years, it is partnering with State Farm to add new features to its Incident Response Unit (IRU).
Previously offering emergency services under the name ALERT, ADOT scrapped the system and rebranded as the IRU last October.
“Our ALERT crew did great work, but the demand for their services is increasing,” John
Halikowski, director of ADOT, said.
Unlike ALERT, the IRU focuses solely on clearing crashes and getting traffic moving quickly. Dedicating all of their time to collisions, ADOT has managed to cut their response time in half. Within the first three months of existence, the IRU assisted in nearly four thousand crashes on freeways across Arizona.
Setting up traffic control, moving vehicles involved in minor crashes, removing debris from collisions, and changing flat tires all fall under the 14-member IRU team’s duties.
“It’s all about safety. We have some big goals for our emergency response unit,”
Halikowski said. “Drivers are not making good choices, they are not using good judgement when they’re operating their vehicles on the road.”
The minutes after a collision make all the difference.
Jeffery King, the Arizona safety specialist for the Federal Highway Association, said that for every minute a traffic incident sits on the roadway, the risk of a secondary collision goes up by 2.8%.
“One of the things you will not hear and goes unmeasured are the number of secondary crashes, the number of serious injury crashes, the number of fatal crashes, that do not occur because of the efforts of those brave responders,” King said.
The State Farm partnership allows for IRU trucks to be more recognizable than ever before. With bright red and white markings, State Farm and ADOT branding on the sides of their pickup trucks, and new highway signs will all help to alert drivers when an incident has occurred nearby.
“I can tell you, when this truck pulls up, those lights are going and a gentleman like this walks out and says, ‘Stay in your car, I got this,’ your blood pressure drops significantly,” Samuel McClain, Vice President of Traveler’s Marketing, said.
State Farm sponsors similar programs in 20 other states. In Arizona, six thousand responders underwent proper training and are now on-call for roadside assistance.
Today, the first State Farm partnered ADOT truck will be on the road. In the coming two
weeks, all 14 trucks will be patrolling Valley freeways Monday through Friday from 5 a.m. to 8
P.m., providing on-call overnight and weekend help.
Contact the reporter at swindom@asu.edu
